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Prisoner of the U-90
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«#
PRISONER
OF THE U-90
By $DOUARD VICTOR K5AACS
LIEUTENANT UNITED STATES NAVY
Being the personal narrative of the adventures of the
only line officer of the United States Navy to be
captured in the Great War.
With an Introduction by the Honorable Josbphus
Daniels, Secretary of the Navy.
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
1919
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1
PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS j
R 1910 M
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY BDOUARD VICTOR ISAACS
ALL RIGHTS RKSBRVKD
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THIS BOOK IS LOVINGLY INSCRIBED TO
THE ONE FROM WHOM CAME THE INSPIRATION
FOR ALL GOOD DEEDS
MY WIFE
o
I
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Contents
Introduction, by the Honorable
Josephus Daniels ix
Prologue x
I. The Sinking 2
II. Captured 6
III. Bombed ii
IV. The U-90 16
V. Submarine Joy-Riding 24
VI. In Wilhelmshaven 35
VII. The Listening Hotel 46
VIII. The Camp 5i
IX. Plans of Escape 60
X. The Best Effort 69
XI. Punishment 75
XII. The American Camp 87
XIII. Routine 97
XIV. Incidents 108
XV. Plans n6
XVI. More Troubles 128
XVII. The Enlisted Men 139
[vii]
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Contents
XVIII. The Escape
148
XIX. On the Way
160
XX. The Rhine
172
Conclusion
183
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Introduction
The chief by-product of the Great War is the reve-
lation made to this generation that we associate
every day with men of heroic mould. Before the
call to battle came, we had not the vision to see the
stuff of which our American youngsters were
made. When the hour for achievement struck, we
discovered all about us men who by valor and
initiative and resource not only preserved all the
best traditions, but made new and glorious tra-
ditions.
The story of the President Lincoln is one that
thrills, for it is a concrete case of how Navy men
meet emergencies and look death in the face with-
out a qualm. Lieutenant Isaacs has told the story
of its torpedoing and of the courage of its captain
and all on board in a way to increase the confi-
dence and admiration we have for men in the
naval service. His recital of his capture, his rare
experiences, his alertness to secure information
that would aid his country, his resolve to find or
make a way to escape and bring back the knowl-
edge his terrible experiences had imparted, his
resourcefulness and will to overcome what seemed
insuperable obstacles — these make a story that
will live in the annals of naval daring and naval
disregard of danger.
JOSEPHUS DANIELS
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Prisoner of the U-90
PROLOGUE
The old Hamburg-American liner Presi-
dent Lincoln was one of the German .ships
taken over by the United States when the
President announced that a state of war
was considered to exist between America
and Germany. She was considerably dam-
aged by the Huns before they were taken
off and interned, but within six months
had been repaired and fitted up as a Navy
transport mounting four six-inch guns and
capable of carrying 5000 troops and 8000
tons of cargo. Her name, that of one of our
most illustrious Presidents, was left un-
changed, and she shoved off from Hoboken
piers on October 18, 1917, bound for St.
Nazaire, France, on her maiden voyage as
an American man-o'-war.
[1 1
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CHAPTER I
THE SINKING
The morning of May 31, 191 8, broke clear
and cool. We had left the coast of France
behind and were running west with a fair
breeze in company with three other trans-
ports.
The U.S.S. President Lincoln, the Na-
vy's most useful transport, in returning
light from her fifth trip to France since
America entered the Great War, was mak-
ing twelve and a half knots, although had
she been alone standard speed would have
been her maximum of fifteen knots. The
escorting destroyers had left us the preced-
ing evening twenty-four hours out from
Brest. A few hours later, as we were run-
ning with all lights out and zigzagging ac-
cording to plan, the German submarine
U-90 cruising on the surface at six knots
speed sighted us by the light of the moon.
Increasing her speed she trailed us un-
known to the convoy. We were four huge
It]
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The Sinking
shapes looming up in the darkness and vis-
ible to her over a mile away — she was a
small black object lying low in the water
and visible for not more than a quarter of a
mile.
All night she trailed us until her captain
was sure of our base course. Then, circling
around, he made a wide detour and took
up his position intercepting our course and
a few miles ahead. When we bore in sight
he submerged and approached to the at-
tack.
At eight o'clock, the gunnery officer for-
ward and I aft, came off watch from the
control towers after a night of practically
no sleep. We were finishing breakfast. Two
bells had just struck. Suddenly the ship
was rocked by a double explosion, the sec-
ond following the first with scarcely a per-
ceptible interval between. We instantly
rushed to our battle stations, and that was
the last I saw of any of the heads of de-
partments, for my station was aft alone,
theirs were forward.
As I ran aft another explosion shook the
ship. The first two had been forward, but
[3]
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this one was aft directly in my path. The
force of the explosion crushed in No. 12
lifeboat and threw it up on deck not ten
feet from where I stood, but only showered
me with water. The submarine had ap-
proached, submerged, to within eight hun-
dred yards of us with only the periscope
showing. She was directly ahead of the
ship on our left, but disregarded her in the
endeavor to "get" us. The submarine cap-
tain recognized in us the "Big One, and
one of the two six-masted steamers in the
world," as he afterwards said. He aimed
for No. 2 mast and fired two torpedoes,
and then aiming for No. 4 mast he fired
the third. All were perfect hits.
When I reached the after control tower
all guns and boats were manned and per-
fect discipline prevailed. This was the
"green" crew of over six hundred men
who eight months before had never seen a
man-o'-war, not to speak of ever having
manned one.
At ten minutes past nin^ I received the
report that holds No. 5 and No. 6 were
flooded and the water approaching No. 1
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The Sinking
deck. I reported this over the telephone to
the captain, who ordered me to abandon
ship. At nine-fifteen all hands aft were off
the ship in lifeboats and on rafts. The
main deck was then within a few inches of
the surface of the sea, for we had been
gradually settling since the third explosion.
In fact some waves were already washing
over the deck. I then jumped on a life-raft
with my messenger, who had never left
me, and together we tied our raft to those
near by; then giving our painter to one
of the boats, I ordered them to pull away
from the sinking ship. At nine-thirty we
were well clear, and the old ship, turning
over gently to starboard, put her nose in
the air and went down. As the waters
closed over her we rose and gave three
cheers for the President Lincoln — the
best ship that ever carried troops in the
cause of Freedom.
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CHAPTER II
CAPTURED
For fifteen minutes after the Lincoln went
down, we busied ourselves tying together
rafts and boats in order that they would
not be scattered over the ocean and so
that the survivors could be easily and
quickly picked up by the rescuing vessels
when they should arrive on the scene.
Debris of all kinds was floating about —
immense timbers, broken topmasts, and
other gear were being propelled out of the
water in all directions. There was great
danger of some of these striking u&, but
fortunately none found a mark. Finally,
after being in the water on the raft for
three quarters of an hour, a half-filled boat
happened along and picked me up.
About this time, the other three ships
having disappeared in the distance, the
submarine came to the surface and ap-
proached the boat. In answer to the en-
treaties of the men in my boat I lay back
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Captured
in the stern sheets and covered the gold
stripes on my sleeves with my body. I
could not bring myself to the humiliation
of hiding in the bottom of the boat and
leaving them to face alone the displeasure
of the pirates, although they begged me to
do so or at least to remove my uniform, I
saw later, however, that there was no use
in trying to deceive the captain, for the
submarine approached to within fifty
yards and he could at that short distance
readily distinguish every detail of uniform.
I had lost my cap, but had on an old blouse
under my life-jacket. Recognizing this, the
commanding officer of the U-boat put a
megaphone to his lips and sang out,
"Come aboard." We pulled alongside, and
as I rose to step out of the lifeboat, the
men, realizing that I was about to leave
them, perhaps never to return, raised their
voices in protest and tried to restrain me. I
turned to calm them, telling them not to
worry, that it was only the fortunes of
war, and stepping on the gunwale I
grasped the hands of those nearest me in
a heartfelt good-bye and jumped on the
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Prisoner of the U-90
deck of the submarine. I had endeavored
to wear as pleasant an expression on my
face as I could muster in that trying time,
although, as I released the fingers of my
little gunner Cochrane, I felt I was bidding
farewell to a real friend for perhaps the
last time.
As I walked along the deck a German
sailor came behind me and took my pistol.
I then gave him the whole belt. Going up
to the conning tower I saluted the officer
whom I took to be the captain. He ad-
dressed me in rather fair English as fol-
lows:
"Are you the captain of the President
Lincoln?"
"No, sir," I replied. "I believe the cap-
tain went down with the ship, for I have
not seen him since. I am the first lieuten-
ant."
"I am Captain Remy," he said. "My
orders are to take the senior officer prisoner
whenever I sink a man-o'-war. You will re-
main aboard and point out your captain
to me."
At that time Captain Foote, of the Lin-
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Captured
coin, was pulling stroke oar in one of the
lifeboats. It was his duty to remain with
his men and so be in a position to look af-
ter their safety until aided by rescuing
vessels. The manner in which he per-
formed this duty is one of the most strik-
ing incidents of the Great War. Of the
seven hundred souls aboard the President
Lincoln only twenty-three men and three
officers were lost, and that a greater loss of
life did not result must be attributed to
the grand discipline which prevailed, for
which he alone was responsible, and to his
coolness and skill in the long trying hours
which elapsed before destroyers arrived at
eleven o'clock that night.
When Captain Remy finished speaking
he offered me a glass of sherry, which I
took with thanks, for the water had been
rather cold and I was numb from my waist
down. We then cruised slowly among the
boats and rafts. I sang out to two or
three boats and asked if they had seen
the captain. Receiving negative replies I
turned to Captain Remy and told him I
was sure my captain had gone down with
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the ship. Thereupon he sent me below and
gave me warm clothing.
The submarine then left the scene of the
sinking and cruised up and down on the
surface for the next two days. Early the
following morning a radio message from
an American destroyer was intercepted
and Captain Remy gave it to me to read.
It said: "President Lincoln sunk. Surviv-
ors saved. A few missing."
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CHAPTER III
BOMBED
In cruising in that vicinity we were merely
following out what appeared to be Remy's
routine schedule. He called those waters
his cruising ground. We remained con-
stantly on the surface, submerging only
when it became necessary to avoid ships,
and once a day to get the proper trim. I
was up on deck most of the time standing
on the conning platform behind the officer
of thfe deck. The weather was moderate,
and although we rolled slightly it was dry
and comfortable there. I had plenty of
time to look at the sea and the sky and
review my novel situation.
When I was ordered to the President
Lincoln from the Fleet and realized that I
would actually have an opportunity to do
my share in the winning of the war, I was
pleased beyond description. I rather ex-
pected to be wounded or killed or even
drowned, for I conjectured that if the
[ n 1
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"game" went on long enough it was only-
natural that, by the laws of choice and
chance, the Lincoln would finally be tor-
pedoed; and with her torpedoed and sunk
it was to be expected that some would
be wounded, some killed outright, some
drowned, and the remainder rescued little
the worse for the experience. But never
once had the thought of being taken pris-
oner entered my mind; I dare say it is or
was the same with the most of us. And so I
had food for thought during those first few
days, and the more I thought about it the
less I liked it. The only one taken among
the seven hundred souls on the President
Lincoln! Worse still, the only United
States Navy Officer captured by the Ger-
mans during the war! I decided it could
not be.
The afternoon of June 1st, about five
o'clock, as we were sitting in the tiny
wardroom sipping our "KafFee," the offi-
cer who had the watch on deck sent word
to the captain that two ships had been
sighted. They were two American de-
stroyers, apparently the ones who had
[12I
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Bombed
picked up the survivors of the President
Lincoln, and were on their way back to
Brest. Remy went on deck, took the conn,
and turning away from the destroyers
went full speed ahead. Just at this time the
submarine was sighted by the destroyers
who gave chase. When Remy found he was
seen, he quickly submerged and zigzagged
while making about eight knots speed. We
ran at a depth of two hundred feet. All
officers and men were at their stations — I
was alone in the wardroom with no com-
panions but Hope and Fear: hope that
they would "get" the submarine and fear
of that very eventuality.
We were submerged but a few minutes
when a dull concussion slightly rocked the
boat. It was the first depth bomb! Others
followed in quick succession until a total
of twenty-two were counted. Inside the
submarine it was as quiet as the grave
— -'the only sounds that broke the still-
ness were the frequent reports from the
petty officer at the microphones to the
captain telling him when the sounds of
the destroyers' propellers showed they
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were approaching or receding and in which
direction.
Five of the depth bombs exploded so
close that the boat was shaken from stem
to stern, and I fully expected to see the
seams open and the water rush in. At that
time I did not know which side I was
cheering for. But she stood the shocks
well, and soon the sound of the propellers
grew fainter and fainter, and finally could
be heard no more. We remained submerged
an hour longer and then came to the sur-
face finding all serene and calm again.
During the "show". I looked into the
control room to see how officers and men
were taking their medicine. There was one
cool person among the five officers and
forty-two men and he was the captain. I
saw two of the officers shaking their heads
over the affair, and the blanched faces of
the crew told better than words what
their feelings were. Remy afterwards told
me there was one part of his business he
dreaded more than what I had just wit-
nessed — and that was the passing through
unknown mine fields.
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Bombed
The following morning, June 2d, we
sighted another American destroyer. This
time Remy took no chances of being seen,
but submerged immediately.
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CHAPTER IV
THE U-90
The U-90 was built in 1916 and was com-
missioned in 1917. She was about two hun-
dred feet long and mounted a four-inch
gun forward and another aft of the con-
ning tower. The guns were rigidly fixed to
the deck and so were in the water when-
ever the ship submerged; but all the more
delicate parts were covered with a thick
coat of tallow, and as far as I could tell the
salt water did little damage to the guns.
Extending up through the top of the con-
ning tower were two periscopes about
twenty feet long which housed inside, but
could be extended at will; so the submarine
could cruise along submerged to a depth of
fifteen feet, and at the same time, by run-
ning up a periscope, see everything that
happened on the surface. The submerged
speed was eight or nine knots, but on the
surface it was fully sixteen knots. She car-
ried folding radio masts which were hoisted
I 16 ]
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TheU-90
every night, until one night they were
damaged in a storm and from then on de-
pendence had to be placed in the aerial
stretched between the heavy cables run-
ning from stem to stern over the conning
tower. These cables passed above guns and
conning tower in such a way that all pro-
jections on the submarine were protected
from nets and the like. At the stem the
cables were made fast to saw-edged steel
bars which were expected to cut the
•strands of wire whenever a net was en-
countered. Right below the conning tower
was the control room where there were al-
ways two men on watch and where were
controlled all devices for submerging.
In good weather all the navigating was
done from the top of the conning tower
while the steersman was inside the tower;
but in very rough weather the officer of
the deck went inside and the hatch was
closed. With the hatch closed the U-boat
could submerge immediately by simply
tilting the horizontal rudder. The descent
was very gradual and the submarine, in-
stead of dropping like a heavy weight, was
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Prisoner of the U-90
forced through the water by the propel-
lers at a very slight incline. With the hatch
open it took about ninety seconds to shift
from the internal combustion or Diesel en-
gines to the storage batteries, close the
hatch, and submerge.
Just forward of the control room were
two very small compartments, one to star-
board and one to port, with a passage be-
tween. The starboard compartment was
used as a cabin by the two youngest offi-
cers. It was probably seven feet long by
four feet wide. The port compartment was
somewhat smaller and was used as the
radio room. Forward of these two com-
partments was the wardroom, about seven
feet long and six feet wide, on one side of
which were two bunks, one over the other,
used by two of the officers, and on the
other side a washstand and some lockers
built against the bulkhead in which was
kept the wardroom food. A collapsible
table occupied the center of the room and
on this our food was placed. In the eve-
ning after the food was put away a ham-
mock was swung in the center of the room
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The U-90
and in this I slept every night I was
aboard.
Forward of the wardroom was the cap-
tain's cabin, a room of about the same size
as the former. He had a bunk, a desk, and
a chair, and no place for anything else.
Two other compartments were forward of
the cabin: the large sleeping compartment
for the crew (in one corner of which was
the officers' toilet) and the forward torpedo
room.
At the stern was the after torpedo room,
but these two compartments I was never
allowed to enter. However, I learned that
the U-90 carried eight torpedoes. She had
sunk two twenty-five-hundred-ton ships
before she torpedoed the President Lin-
coln. Three torpedoes were expended on us
and one each on the others, so she still had
three left. It was to get an opportunity to
fire these remaining three that Captain
Remy stayed two days longer on his cruis-
ing ground after sinking the Lincoln.
Abaft the control room was another
large sleeping compartment for the crew,
and here also was the galley where all the
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Prisoner of the U-90
food for both officers and men was pre-
pared. Between this compartment and the
after torpedo room was the engine room
with its two Diesel engines.
Although the quarters were cramped
and there were many inconveniences to be
put up with, life aboard was not so un-
pleasant as people are likely to imagine.
We had only sufficient water for washing
our hands and faces once a day, and the
crew had hardly that much. The subma-
rine rolled considerably in a heavy sea, but
when submerged there was absolutely no
sensation of being in motion. The air in the
boat was very good and seldom did it be-
come disagreeable.
Besides "Kapitan-Leutnant" Remy,
the commanding officer, who was a "regu-
lar," and who had entered the German
Naval Academy in 1905, there was a young
engineer lieutenant who had graduated
from their Engineering School and who
was responsible for the efficient condition
of the machinery; a young lieutenant who
had entered the Naval Academy in 1913;
and a reserve lieutenant who had been in
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The U-90
the merchant fleet before the war. Then
there was another officer of the same rank
as Remy, who was making the cruise pre-
paratory to taking command of one of the
new submarines Germany was building.
The crew was composed of young men,
happy and in good physical condition.
They seemed to like the duty aboard, but
I found out that the reasons why it was so
popular were: first, after about three round
trips they were given the Iron Cross; sec-
ond, they had the best food in Germany;
third, half the crew were given leave of ab-
sence every time they were in port; and,
fourth, they received the highest rate of
pay in the Navy and this was further in-
creased by a certain sum for each day they
submerged. So for all these reasons the Ger-
mans were able to keep their submarines
manned by voluntary enlistments, at least
until the last months of the war.
Captain Remy treated me with extreme
consideration and politeness. He tried to
make things as pleasant for me as possible
and his officers took their cue from him. I
messed with them at their little table and
[21 ]
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Prisoner of the U-90
took part in the conversation which, for
my sake, was often in English — for nearly
all the officers could speak English fairly
well, the "regulars" being required to
study it at the Naval Academy.
We had many sociable evenings, and
they helped me to forget for a few hours at
least the trying position in which I found
myself. I had played bridge in English,
French, and Spanish, but it was not until
my sojourn on the U-90 that I learned to
play it in German. Every evening when
the remnants of the last meal were cleared
away we gathered around the little table in
the wardroom and played cards. I was
agreeably surprised when one evening
after I had learned how to play a real
German game, Captain Remy suggested
that we play bridge. And a very interest-
ing game they made of it.
We had four meals every day: break-
fast at 8 a.m., which consisted usually of
canned sausage ("vorst," as they catted
it), canned jam, canned bread, canned
lard, and coffee; dinner at twelve o'clock
noon consisting of soup and the rest the
[22]
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TheU-90
same as at breakfast; "Kaffee" at 4 p.m.,
which was coffee and bread with the lard
(they called it marmalade) spread over it;
and supper at 8 p.m., when we had potato
pancakes, or some such delicacy of the
cook's, together with the same old stand-
bys — sausage, bread, lard, and coffee.
Occasionally we had tea and a few times
cocoa. Twice we had eggs; but the usual
menu was what I have just described. This
could hardly compare with the food of the
President Lincoln nor with the Navy ra-
tion; but as Remy warned me, it was de-
cidedly the best food in Germany and so
very much better than I should be likely to
see that he begged me to eat while I had
the opportunity. God knows he spoke the
truth.
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CHAPTER V
SUBMARINE JOY-RIDING
Having sighted so many American ships
in those waters, Remy decided that things
were getting too warm for him on his cruis-
ing ground, so he turned northward and
began the trip home* He did not try to run
through the Straits of Dover, "for," as he
said, "the English have finally sewed them
up," but instead took the northern route.
The weather was fine, and we ran most of
the time on the surface at from eight to ten
knots speed. Several days it was so calm
we shipped no water over the deck, so I sat
out in the sunshine and watched the waves
roll by.
We zigzagged continually, making sharp
turns and large angles with the base course.
For four days we ran along the Irish coast
and-northward without sighting a ship, and
finally one morning about four o'clock they
awoke me to go hunting.
We were then near the Arctic Circle and
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Submarine Joy-Riding
being June it was daylight all night long.
When I came on deck I found that we had
approached to within a hundred yards of
what looked to be a barren cliff rising
straight out of the water. It was North
Rona, one of the little islands lying west of
the Scottish Main, and Remy knew it as
the abode of a few hundred half-wild sheep
— for he had been there before. He told me
that years before a hermit had come to live
on the island and had begun the raising of
sheep. When he died the sheep continued
to thrive. From my position on deck I
could count about one hundred and fifty,
but I got no closer, for when the little ba~
teau was brought out from its place be-
tween the inner and outer hulls and an offi-
cer and two men with their guns had taken
their places in it as it lay alongside the
ship, the captain decided it would be bet-
ter for me to stay aboard.
My binoculars had not been taken from
me, so through them I watched the
"sport." The boat pulled up to a small in-
let where the occupants were able to make
a landing. They tied up the boat and the
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Prisoner of the U-90
three of them climbed up the rocks to a
grassy plain in the center of the island.
Then they drove a large number of the
sheep up to the top of the cliff on the west
side of the island and proceeded to shoot
nine of them. One little woolly lamb they
caught alive and brought back aboard. We
named it Rona, and from that time on
Rona and I, being companions in misery,
were the best of friends. One of the sheep
they shot fell over the side of the cliff into
the water. Remy slowly backed the sub-
marine to within three feet of the base
of the cliff, where a sailor with a grapnel
reached over the stern and caught it up.
When the hunting party returned the sheep
were dressed on the deck of the submarine
by the ship's cook and every day there-
after we had fresh mutton.
Proceeding on our way we rounded the
Shetlands and headed south into the North
Sea. I had now been aboard a week and
already had collected some information. I
glanced at the charts whenever I had an
opportunity; I also borrowed an atlas from
one of the officers. In this way I learned as
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Submarine Joy-Riding '
much as I could about our course and the
habits of the U-boats.
We ran down the coast of Norway, then
across to the Jutland coast through the
Skaggerack and into the Cattegat. One
night in the North Sea we met another
German submarine that was short of oil.
The captain came aboard, talked awhile
with Remy, and then returned to his ship
lying a few hundred yards away. He de-
cided it was too rough to take oil and said
he would try to make it to Kiel with what
he had. Two nights later in the Cattegat
we had another meeting with him, and this
time he asked Remy for enough oil to make
sure of an adequate supply for the run to
Kiel. The two submarines had exchanged
recognition signals and approached. The
oil was then pumped through a hose from
the U-90 to the other submarine. This
took about an hour, and we then continued
the cruise.
The following day, June 9th, we ran on
the surface until 9 a.m., and then sub-
merged and rested on the bottom in water
less than a hundred feet deep. We stayed
[27I
Prisoner of the U-90
there a short time and then came to the
surface. At noon we submerged again, this
time to a depth of over two hundred and
twenty-five feet, and at five knots speed
approached The Sound, the narrow waters
lying between Denmark and Sweden.
Great care was taken to avoid the mine
fields which are strewn through the Catte-
gat. We remained submerged more than
ten hours, coming to the surface at 1 1 p.m.
The air was rather disagreeable toward the
last, but not unbearable. Several tanks of
oxygen were carried to replenish the sup-
ply of fresh air whenever it became neces-
sary.
When we came to the surface at eleven
o'clock all the officers including myself
went up on deck for a smoke. It was bare-
ly dusk, for in those latitudes and at that
time of year there is practically no night,
or at least no real darkness. I found that
we were in a small bay with the lights of
Sweden on one side, the lights of Denmark
on the other. We were probably four miles
from land.
A few minutes later another submarine
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Submarine Joy-Riding
came to the surface about a quarter of a
mile away, and then another. The three of
us slowly cruised up and down in the mid-
dle of the bay for perhaps an hour. It had
become a little darker. Suddenly I resolved
on a break for liberty.
Many times during my stay on board
the submarine I had planned to escape. I
racked my brain for ideas. I searched the
ship for "escape material. ,, I ransacked
the drug locker in my efforts to find some-
thing to aid me in either capturing the sub-
marine or taking my leave of it. On the
plea of wanting to clean my pistol I got it
back again. I cleaned, oiled, and loaded it,
and not to arouse suspicion, I put it on the
captain's desk, where, however, I could
get it at any time — but I had only twenty
cartridges and my captors numbered forty-
seven. The odds surely seemed against
me. At last, however, I felt that the
long-awaited opportunity had arrived.
My life-jacket had never been taken
from me, and with that on I was sure I
could swim to the shore, or at least remain
afloat until picked up by one of the little
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Prisoner of the U-90
fishing boats common in those waters. But
it was still too light for the attempt, and it
would be worse than useless to get into the
water and then have the submarine pick
me up again, which would surely happen
unless I could lose myself in the darkness.
I waited until twelve-thirty, and al-
though it was not so dark as I would have
liked I decided the time had come. Just
about this time a Gprman destroyer bore
down upon us from the eastward making
high speed. She was undoubtedly keeping
the rendezvous for the purpose of escort-
ing us through Danish waters into the Bal-
tic. I was now sure that I knew their ren-
dezvous and I could trace again their
course, if only I could get back with my
information.
I casually wandered over to the edge of
the deck and made ready to jump. Just as
I was going over the side Remy, who had
never been far from me, caught me by the
arm. Resistance was useless. He ordered
me below, but before I passed through the
conning-tower hatch, I took one last look
around and saw that the destroyer was
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Submarine Joy-Riding
placing herself at the head of the column
of submarines and heading west toward
the channel into which I had seen several
small fishing boats disappear earlier in the
evening. I am sure in that direction lay
Copenhagen — perhaps not far distant.
The following morning I arose early and
was allowed to go up on deck. I feel positive
Remy never held against me my attempt
to escape, and to this day has not reported
it. I found we were in the Baltic and our
companions of the night before were no-
where to be seen. It was a beautiful day
and the water was like glass. I sat down on
deck with my binoculars and viewed my
surroundings.
There was great activity on the U-90.
Breech-blocks were being taken out of the
guns and cleaned; the "bright work" was
being polished, and all preparations were
being made to enter port. This was June
10th, the eleventh day of my enforced
visit aboard. Three or four merchantmen
flying the German flag passed us going
east. Later in the morning, near Fehmarn
Island, which lies north of Lubeck, we
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Prisoner of the U-90
passed the battle cruiser Hindenburg and
two other battle cruisers of the same type.
Farther on were four smaller cruisers ma-
neuvering individually.
We continued past Fehmarn to Kiel,
where we arrived and tied up to the land-
ing at the entrance to the locks at 3 p.m.
There was a net across the entrance to the
harbor, and outside we passed six or seven
small destroyers and four or five subma-
rines. The latter were probably on practice
trips. Inside the harbor there were seven
seaplanes engaged in making landings near
the bathing beach, where many women
and children played in the chilly water.
On the other side of the harbor from us
were two of the new submarine mine-lay-
ers. They mounted a six-inch gun forward
and looked to be about three hundred and
fifty feet long. They appeared to be still in
the "shaking down" stage. In the govern-
ment docks farther down I could see about
ten light and armored cruisers looking real
new in their coats of fresh paint.
One of the officers took me ashore for a
short walk after I had rid myself of the two
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weeks' growth of beard with the aid of
Remy's razor. I saw little of the town and
was soon back aboard. At 7 p.m. we shoved
off, entered the locks, and then proceeded
down the famous canal at nine knots speed.
Another submarine followed us, and Remy
told me it was the one that torpedoed the
Celtic and the Tuscania.
I stayed up on deck until after midnight
and made mental notes of the canal. It is
rather narrow except in a few places where
it has been widened to allow of the passing
of large ships. The shores are cemented
part-way up the slope, and it is in every
respect neat and clean. Every hundred
meters there is a bollard to which ships
may tie, and powerful electric lights are
hung at frequent intervals making the
canal at night-time almost as light as day.
The shores at the top of the slope are
patrolled by sentries, and every few kilo-
meters there is a small ferry and a guard-
house filled with soldiers. A very few
bridges, and these with high arches, span
the canal.
When I awoke the following day we
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Prisoner of the U-90
were in Heligoland Bight, heading south
toward the mouth of the Jade River, up
which a few miles is Wilhelmshaven, the
base of the High Seas Fleet. Overhead at
a height of about two thousand meters
patrolled a huge Zeppelin. Repair ships,
small destroyers, and tugs were every-
where. A division of three battleships, of
which two were the Konig II and the Gros-
ser Kurfiirst, passed us at high speed head-
ing north and escorted by a division of four
large destroyers. -We entered the locks at
10 a.m. and after passing through went
alongside the "mother" ship Preussen. My
joy-ride was oven
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CHAPTER VI
IN WILHELMSHAVEN
The old battleship Preussen, now disman-
tled and used only as the "mother" ship
for six or eight submarines, lay in a back-
water from which none of the city could be
seen. When the U-90 had tied up, I was
sent aboard and was immediately placed in
a room with a barred port, the door was
locked, and an armed sentry took up his
post outside. The commanding officer of
the Preussen came to the room later and I
asked for a toothbrush, a comb, and per-
mission to take a bath. A few minutes
later he returned with a new toothbrush
and a broken comb. I saw him no more,
and he apparently left my entertainment
to my guards.
Later in the day I prevailed on the guard
to let me take a bath. He took me to a sort
of laundry, and there in a tin tub I finally
got clean again. That noon I had had a
plate of soup and a large piece of sour
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Prisoner of the U-90
black bread. I could not eat the sour dough
on the inside of the loaf, and the crust
which enclosed it was over half an inch
thick and as hard as a rock. I tried to chew
that, but broke one of my teeth on it, so
decided that further attacks would be use-
less. "Anyway," I consoled myself, "this
is the small meal of the day and I will have
a genuine repast to-night."
About five-thirty that evening my
guard brought me a cup of colored water
— hot and with some dregs in the bottom.
I tasted it and found that it was nothing
more nor less than plain hot water. It just
did not "taste," that was all. I waited for
supper or dinner or anything else they
cared to bring me, but as nothing materi-
alized I grew sleepy and went to bed. My
room contained, besides the bed, a wash-
stand, a table, and a chair.
In the morning I was up early and ready
for a mammoth breakfast. At eight o'clock
my guard brought me a cup of "warm
Kaffee," as he said. I thought I had better
drink it at once before it got cold instead
of waiting for the rest of my breakfast. But
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In Wilhelmshaven
one taste was enough. The night before I
had made the acquaintance of "ersatz"
tea made out of strawberry leaves which
at least had the redeeming virtue of being
tasteless. Now I was face to face with
friend "ersatz" coffee made out of burnt
acorns and barley, whiph, however, could
not boast of any virtue, and the taste was
so bitter that even quinine would have
bedn far preferable. Of course, had there
been sugar and cream I might have been
able to drink it, but it was sacrilege even
to mention those luxuries. Well, that was
my ration. No more breakfast came, and
at noontime the same routine began again.
I used to look out of my barred port
(about ten inches in diameter) and see the
ship's crew carrying their food from the
galley to their messing quarters. I was an
dfficer, but could I have had even the food
the crew was eating, which was infinitely
better than what they gave me, I should
have been perfectly satisfied. Of course,
had I been a German naval officer on an
American man-o'-war I should have been
messing de luxe in the wardroom and being
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Prisoner of the U-90
treated with all the courtesy and consider-
ation due my rank — in fact, as an equal.
Yes, even had I been guilty of the murder
of innocent women and children I should
have been treated as the officers of the
U-58 were treated by the officers of the
American destroyer Fanning when the
U-58 was damaged and forced to surrender.
But being an American officer on a Ger-
man man-o'-war, I was locked in a small
room in solitary confinement with nothing
to read, and given food we should have
been ashamed to feed an animal.
Captain Remy, of the U-90, came in to
see me once before he went on leave. I had
found a five-dollar bill in my pocket, which
was everything I had in the world after the
ship went down, and this I asked Remy to
change for me into German money, which
he kindly did, also buying me some tooth-
paste and toilet articles. The officer who
was on the U-90 for training purposes also
came in to see me in my prison room. He
came to say good-bye, for he had just re-
ceived orders to proceed to Kiel and take
command of one of the new submarines. It
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In Wilhelmshaven
was then that I first realized the un-Ger-
man character of the treatment I had re-
ceived on the U-90. While there, all the
officers had tried to make things pleasant
for me, and although we had many argu-
ments on the war the discussions were
friendly. I could not help contrasting this
with my treatment on the Preussen.
The second day of my stay on the
"mother" ship, a young officer came to
take me to the Wilhelm II, flagship of the
High Seas Fleet. We entered a waiting
launch and shoved off, passing by several
docks where ships of all kinds were tied up.
I counted fully twenty-five destroyers ap-
parently with no steam up, but partially
manned, also six or seven battleships and a
few cruisers.
When we arrived alongside the Wilhelm
II, I noticed that she was partially dis-
mantled and had her upper works enclosed
in sheet-metal to form temporary quarters.
She was merely the port flagship I learned,
and a new superdreadnought was used
as the seagoing flagship. I was taken to a
room marked "Chief of Staff," and there
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Prisoner of the U-90
met an officer who spoke perfect English,
having lived twelve years in England, as
he told me. He began by being very
courteous and talked about everything
except the war. Then he commenced ask-
ing questions and tried to get information
about our Navy and what it was doing,
and also about the Army — how many
troops we had in France and how many we
were sending over every month. I rather
frightened him with the tales I told of the
two million men we had in France and the
twenty million more who were on the way,
until finally he lost his tejnper and de-
manded to know why America had entered
the war: that it was none of her affair, and
that it was all bosh to talk about "mak-
ing the world safe for Democracy" and
other altruistic motives, since no nation
ever went to war except for gain; and the
only reason why America could have pos-
sibly entered the war was to safeguard
the millions she had loaned to England
and France.
"Why!" he exclaimed, "we expected
you to come in on the side of Germany."
[40]
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In Wilhelmshaven
Now all this was old news to me. »or ;i
had been the argument of all the o^rcr*
the U-90, and I recognized it as tb< . y »•■
ganda issued by the Government which i ;
taken as the absolute truth by every Ger-
man high and low. It fir • > an echo from
the lips of every one of t^ . — they all
read the newspapers — .^ ith practi-
cally not an exception 1 heard these same
ideas expressed by each Geiman I met
during my stay in Germany.
Needless to say the Chief of Staff and I
no longer agreed. It took me but a short
time to set him aright as to America's rea-
sons for entering the war.
"Do you think America will ever forget
the Lusitania?" I asked him; "or ally her-
self with the authors of the famous 'Hymn
of Hate' ?"
And then, with the most biting sarcasm
of which I was capable: "But then even
had we joined with you we could not have
entered the alliance on an equal footing.
We had nothing to offer. We had no -ppu-
tation established in the realms of * <'
an J . ., ^ \ We had not murdf .;! a*.
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Prisoner of the u-90
women and children. We were not even
«!"
~ "Vv ixsireupon the interview ended. I had
heard, and I have since proved to my own
satisfaction, that the most scathing remark
one can make to an educated German is to
call him $* ^ "
Anothertr3y~tffc my solitary confinement
on board the Preussen, and then about
dusk a warrant officer and four armed en-
listed men escorted me through the streets
of Wilhelmshaven for three miles to the
Commandatur — a group of buildings sur-
rounded by a high stone wall. Here I was
placed in a small room opening off a cor-
ridor. A guard with a loaded rifle was out-
side my window. Another stood in the cor-
ridor outside my door which was kept
locked. The prison building itself was
locked and the place was full of jailers.
The adjoining buildings were barracks for
sailors and recruits; and the courtyard in
the center was patrolled by several guards.
I thought of escaping, but I knew that
i were I able to get out of the Com-
mandatur, which was practice rv^v^os-
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In Wilhelmshaven
sible, I could never get out of Wilhelma-
haven, the most intensely guarded city of
Germany.
At the prison I was searched and my
identification disk taken from me. I was
given the same kind of food (?) I had re-
ceived on the Preussen. Fortunately I was
there only parts of three days, so I was not
quite starved — but I lived an eternity in
that short time.
About 4 a.m. the morning of my third
day at the Commandatur, I was called and
told to be ready by five o'clock to leave the
prison. Exactly at five an officer and two
sailors came for me and I was marched to
the station and on the train for Karlsruhe.
We went by way of Hannover and Frank-
fort-on-the-Main.
Outside of Wilhelmshaven I saw large
herds of cattle apparently for the Fleet.
These were the only cattle I ever saw
in Germany. It was haying-time, and
through the fields were scattered women
and children (even infants) and old men.
Occasionally I saw a prisoner helping and
sometime* a German soldier. There was
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Prisoner of the U-90
some grain growing, but very little. I came
to the conclusion that the soil was so poor
nothing but hay would grow.
In passing through the large cities there
were many people at the stations, but al-
though the German armies were advanc-
ing in France, nothing but sorrow could be
seen in their countenances and there was a
certain lack of noise and activity that was
appalling.
Of course I had had no breakfast and
by noontime I was nearly famished. It was
then that we arrived at Hannover where
we changed trains. I noticed the young
officer go out and apparently get dinnd
in the station cafe. I waited to see if there
was any food forthcoming for the prisoner,
but nothing appeared. Finally I asked if
any arrangements had been made for my
entertainment besides the free ride on the
train. He must have understood, because
he countered with "Have you any money? "
I remembered the remainder of my former
five-dollar bill. I had several marks left, so
I told him if he could arrange a modest
meal the contents of my pocket were his.
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In Wilhelmshaven
With this incentive he quickly accom-
plished the impossible. I had some pota-
toes and string beans and a very tiny piece
of meat. But no banquet could ever com-
pare with that meal.
About dusk we arrived at Karlsruhe
where the officer and his men turned me
over to the Army authorities.
Digitized by GoOgle
CHAPTER VII
THE LISTENING HOTEL
Not far from the station of Karlsruhe
there is a hotel which before the war was
probably like any other of the thousands
of cheap hotels in Germany. Now, how-
ever, it had been taken over by the Gov-
ernment and all the rooms stripped of
everything they formerly possessed. The
windows had been frosted over and locked,
and for furniture they had placed several
beds of shavings, stools, and tables in each
room. It was to this hotel I was taken
by the Navy guard and was immediately
placed in one of the rooms alone.
The next morning a British warrant
officer was placed in the same room with
me. Here they made no pretense of giving
us breakfast. We had nothing until noon-
time when we were greeted with soup and a
plate of black, frost-bitten potatoes. After
"dinner" I was ordered down to the in-
telligence office on the ground floor where
[46]
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The Listening Hotel
I was interrogated by a German Army offi-
cer — I had seen my last of the Navy.
The intelligence officer asked me ques-
tions from a typewritten sheet and I saw
him covertly write in the answers. "How
many troops in France?" "Two million,
and twenty million more ready to come."
"How long will the war last?" "At least
five years." — That always hurt their feel-
ings terribly. They were always hoping for
peace in a few months, and every German
would say, "Oh, yes; the Allies cannot
hold out more than two months longer."
Four months later the common people
were still being fed the same propaganda
— each month was to see the end of the
war — but when it did not end what did
they do: lose confidence in the Govern-
ment? No, indeed! They would go on be-
lieving forever if the Kaiser or any one in
authority told them to. I could see some
hope of the people rising up and demand-
ing a change — but it was to be by the few
leaders such as Liebknecht, Erzberger,
Scheidemann, and the like; never the mass
of the people themselves.
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Prisoner of the U-90
When this officer had received my an-
swers to his questions, I was sent back to
a room, but not to the same room from
which I had come. Here I found seven
Frenchmen. They made me welcome and
we sat around and talked in French. They
had been captured at different points of
the front and all had interesting stories to
tell. As the day wore on one of them who
was so fortunate as to have a razor decid-
ed to shave himself. TKere was a small
cracked mirror on the wall which he took
down to place in the light. As he did so,
one of the others noticed that the wall
where the mirror had been hanging was
scratched as if with a sharp instrument
and upon approaching closer he deciphered
the following: "Beware of the dicta-
phones." Investigating further, we found
the same warning in all the Allied lan-
guages, sometimes scratched in the plaster
of the wall and sometimes written in pen-
cil on the under side of tables, chairs, and
bunks. That day for our supper we were
given the same kind of soup as at noon and
this completed the day's refreshments,
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The Listening Hotel
The following day I was sent to a room
where there were three British officers, and
in this room a search revealed" the same
warning. While I was at the "hotel" three
dictaphones were found by the officers.
They tore them out and destroyed them.
I am sure the Germans gained very little
information from us, but they undoubt-
edly learned a few of the many choice
ways in which we habitually spoke of our
"friends," the ' -s"
By comparing tucr stories of other offi-
cers, whom I met in the prison camps to
which I was afterwards sent, I learned how
the system works. Ordinarily an incom-
ing prisoner is placed in a room alone. He
stays there for a day or two and is sent to
the intelligence officer, who plies him with
questions. If he refuses to answer, or is
otherwise obstreperous, he is sent back to
his solitary confinement. When it is con-
sidered that he has been alone long enough
and will be anxious to talk with the first
person he meets, he is placed in a room
with officers who speak the same language
and are, like him, prisoners. By means of
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Prisoner of the U-90
the dictaphones it is hoped to obtain in-
formation of value which one is likely to
let fall in his eagerness to talk again. Some-
times the officers he is placed with are
spies, but this is not resorted to now as
much as at the beginning of the war, ow-
ing to the prevalence among prisoners of
the idea that all "companion*" are ene-
mies.
The fourth day at the ' ' ^ .c Brit-
ish officers in my rocr x away to
the prison camp. 1 . the solitude
for a few hours and > asked to see the
intelligence officer. Wuen he came I asked
why I was undergoing solitary confine-
ment, and why it was being drawn out so
long. He assured me that I should that day
be sent to the camp which was only a few
blocks away. Accordingly, a few minutes
later, the guard lined up outside the hotel
and I was escorted through the streets to
the Zoological Gardens.
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CHAPTER VIII
THE CAMP
About the second year of the war, while
Hagenback's Circus was playing in the
Zoological Gardens at Karlsruhe, a Brit-
ish aeroplane squadron came over and
dropped bombs on the city, one of which
fell in the midst of the people who were at-
tending the performance. Several hundred
people were killed or wounded. In retalia-
tion the Germans built a prison camp at
the scene of the disaster, planning this as
a safeguard against further bombing. As a
matter of fact, the railway station a few
blocks away from the camp was bombed
by the Allies' aero squadrons on an average
of two or three times a week, but no bombs
ever fell near the camp.
When I entered the camp I found a
group of wooden shacks in the shape of an
irregular polygon with a court in the cen-
ter and surrounded by three fences. The
inner fence was of wire only seven feet
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Prisoner of the U-90
high, but the middle fence was of boards
surmounted by barbed wire to a height of
twelve feet. The outer fence was of wire
like the inner and in certain places there
was a fourth fence outside similar to the
two just mentioned. The distance between
the fences was perhaps eight feet. Inside
the court there were five armed sentries
constantly patrolling and outside the last
fence a line of sentries spaced about thirty
yards apart who had more or less station-
ary posts. The whole camp occupied a site
about half as large as a city block.
I was taken to one of the shacks where
I was searched and everything except my
clothes taken from me — even my binoc-
ulars. In the pockets of my tu— -* and
blouse which I was wearing when the
President Lincoln was torpedoed, I had a
few religious articles, a bunch of keys, and
some letters. All went as contraband.
When the search was finished, I was sent
to another hut where I found seven French-
men and eight beds. This was to be my
home.
The building was constructed very much
[52]
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The Camp
like a barn. Partitions divided it into four
rooms in each of which were eight beds of
wood shavings, eight small stools, and a
table. When I had made the acquaintance
of the Frenchmen I went out into the
court and there found many British offi-
cers, several of whom were Canadians,
waiting to greet me. I was the only Ameri-
can. The Germans were atill advancing in
France, but were those British lads down-
hearted? Decidedly no! As they shook
hands with me (I noticed that nearly all
were wounded), they wanted to know just
one thing: "America, are you with us?"
Fortunately I could assure them that
America was *vith them to the end. They
A% • ■ *vj:uj.q"» + * to give up the fight until
whipped, they said, but
\ .ijw America would have to see the
thing through with them or they could not
win. France had already given her all.
There were about one hundred British,
sixty French, fifteen Italian, and five
Serbian officers at the camp when I ar-
rived, but the number fluctuated. All the
Allied officers were first sent to the "listen-
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Prisoner of the U-90
ing hotel" at Karlsruhe which was the
headquarters of the intelligence depart-
ment. Then, while awaiting transfer to the
permanent camps throughout Germany,
they were temporarily placed in the camp
in the center of the Zoological Gardens. I
was there three weeks, and in that time
saw two or three times the capacity of the
camp arrive and. depart. Some, however,
stayed months and others came in one day
and left the next. There seemed to be no
intelligent system followed in transferring
prisoners: at least I came to this conclusion
after seeing several prisoners shifted from
one end of Germany to the other for no
apparent reason.
After becoming acquainted with the
British officers I met most of th' ch.
They had a committee which was in charge
of all the food the French Red Cross sent
to the camp, and the chairman of the com-
mittee took me under his wing, saying he
had orders from France to take care of
any Americans who should come through.
They had very few supplies, but I was
treated like one of their own and given
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The Camp
whatever they had. Among the first
things they gave me were a few very nec-
essary articles of clothing. They also had
some dried beans on hand, a little coffee —
real coffee — and some hard biscuits. The
French hard biscuits have saved many
lives in this war. We used to cut a hole in
them, pour in water, and soon they would
swell up, become soft, and closely resemble
white bread.
I quickly became accustomed to life in
the camp. We had no breakfast. At noon-
time we had a plate of soup made out of
leaves. This was followed usually by a
plate of black potatoes (the good potatoes
were saved for the German Army) or horse
carrots or some similar vegetable. At 6
p.m. we had another plate of soup and
sometimes there was dessert: a teaspoon-
ful of jam. It was terrible tasting stuff and
for a long time we could not tell what it
was made of; but a few months later we
saw peasants gathering the red berries of
the mountain ash and they told us they
made them into jam. That accounted for
the taste.
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Prisoner of the U-90
That was our ration from the Germans
with the exception of the black bread.
Once a day we were given a piece of this
bread about as big as a man's fist. It
weighed about two hundred and forty or
two hundred and fifty grams. Now half a
pound of white bread makes a relatively
large bulk; but the small size of this half-
pound is easily understood when I de-
scribe the ingredients. We tried to analyze
it one day and this is what we found: first,
water and potatoes; second, sawdust and
chaff; and third, sand.
As for the soup, in all the time I was
there it was never changed. It looked and
tasted like water; and the leaves with
which it was filled were, of course, not edi-
ble. Were it not for the food I obtained
from the French committee I should never
have lasted out those three long weeks.
The canteen sold cider and so-called
wine, and once in a while some dried fish.
No other foodstuffs could we buy. They
had safety matches* for twenty-five cents
a small box, "ersatz" cigarettes and to-
bacco at exorbitant prices, the ten-cent
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variety of granite-ware plates and utensils
for from one to three dollars each, oil-cloth
at seven dollars per yard, and a few other
articles that I have forgotten. They told
me that the tobacco must contain seventy-
five per cent of hops, by order of the Gov-
ernment. It looked like wheat chaff, but we
bought it just the same, rather than have
nothing to smoke.
Our orderlies were British "Tommies"
and French "Poilus." Some had been cap-
tured at the beginning of the war, others
more recently. My little "Tommy," to
whom I became greatly attached, used to
tell me about his home in "Blighty," and
how much longer he would have to wait
to see it. One day he told me how he was
taken. His battalion was cut to pieces
and the remnants captured. After terrible
hardships they found themselves in the
rear of the German lines. They were then
lined aip and counted. Three officers and
less than a hundred men were left. The
officers were ordered to step to the frctat,
and there before the eyes of their men they
•". J * '' d I cite this,
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Prisoner of the U-90
not as anything extraordinary, but as a
sample of the tales told by officers and men
alike, who, knowing that land warfare was
new to me, a Navy man, used to recount
their experiences and then ask to hear
mine.
One day six or seven "Tommies" came
to the camp to replenish the supply of or-
derlies. I was near the gate as they came
in, and of all the terrible sights I have ever
witnessed that was the worst. The poor lads
were absolutely skin and bones: I called
them walking skeletons. They came in
dragging their feet along and were so weak
they could hardly stand. They had no
shoes nor stockings, but instead had some
rags tied around their feet. In fact the only
clothing they had consisted of ragged trou-
sers, and a few strips passed over their
shoulders and tied to the tops of the
trousers.
I learned their story. Since their capture
they had been held at St. Quentin, where,
although the Germans had accepted the
terns f rV* agv.i'-rneV ^ 'ic* .by aii ]"'-cu -
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The Camp
kilometers behind the firing line, they were
forced to repair roads under the fire of
their own batteries. Their food was only
one plate of soup a day. Some of the offi-
cers who had just come in assured me that
they had seen these same lads a few morn-
ings before under their prison windows at
St. Quentin waiting for it to become light
enough so they could search the ground
for crusts of bread, cigarette stubs, or any-
thing else the officers might have discarded
the night before.
Digitized by GoOgle
CHAPTER IX
PLANS OF ESCAPE
I had been at Karlsruhe but a few hours
when I made a tour of the camp and sized
up my chances of escape. Realizing my
ignorance of the subject and knowing I
could get good advice from the other pris-
oners, I let them know I had information
which I was anxious to get back to the
Navy and that I proposed to escape at the
first opportunity, or failing an opportunity
that I intended to make one. The Brit-
ish arid French officers immediately offered
me money and food, maps and a com-
pass.
Karlsruhe is about one hundred miles
from the Swiss frontier. A good map was
almost a necessity and the compass would
be my only guide in the long night marches.
The trip would take at least fifteen days
and food to last that long would be diffi-
cult to escape with. But with concentrated
food, such as sweet chocolate, loaf sugar,
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Plans of Escape
and French biscuits, a very little would
keep a man going indefinitely. Those of
the officers who had been taken prisoner
a long time before were receiving food of
all kinds from home; and from them I got
what I needed.
Money would buy many things. In an
emergency, a hundred-mark note dangled
before a guard's eyes would probably
mean the difference between recapture and
freedom. Of course I had no money, but
I knew that I was entitled to some, so I
asked for an interview with the comman-
dant, got it, and told him that in my under-
standing of international law I was en-
titled to at least a part of my salary as an
officer of the United States Navy. He in-
formed me that his Government had no
agreement with America and therefore he
had no authority to pay me. When he
heard, however, that I had no money at
all, he agreed to pay me the same as the
British officers with whose Government
there was an agreement. The lieutenants
were paid sixty marks a month and the
captains and above, one hundred marks.
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Prisoner of the U-90
So he ordered the paymaster to give me
one hundred marks, since my rank cor-
responded to that of an Army captain.
Then the paymaster deducted sixty marks
for my "board" and gave me the balance.
This money was never paid in good spe-
cie, but always in the form of camp paper
money, good only inside the camp, at the
canteen, and for similar purposes.
I could hardly hope to buy my way
to freedom with forty marks, but several
of the officers were able to secrete good
French, German, and British money in
their clothes in such a way that it escaped
detection in the search which every one
had to undergo when entering or leaving
a camp. One French major came in with
twelve hundred francs in good money and
hearing my plans he came right over and
handed it all to me.
Among my fellow prisoners were several
who like me wanted to escape. We talked
over the many plans that had been tried
since the beginning of the war, and in this
manner I learned what to do and what not
to do. Allying myself with two French
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Plans, of Escape
aviators and some British officer prisoners,
I planned my first Karlsruhe escape.
Working at night we were able to loosen
some staples that held the wires of the in-
ner fence to the posts. In this way we made
an opening large enough to pass through,
and then quietly attacked the board fence.
It took several nights of painful work with
the sentries only a short distance away,
but finally we had one board loosened in
such a way that a single wrench would tear
it off.
By judicious use of money and French
biscuits we had acquired two friends among
the sentries — one of whom was a young
Swiss boy who had run away from Swit-
zerland and been impressed into service
by the Germans. Through him one of the
French aviators communicated with friends
he had met in Karlsruhe before the war.
One of these, his fiancee, a German girl,
was preparing her basement for us to
live in for a few days after we should es-
cape from the camp and while the search
was still hot. Then, when the uproar
should have died down, we would crawl
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Prisoner of the U-90
out under cover of darkness and begin the
march to the frontier.
For sentimental reasons I chose the 4th
of July as the day for the attempt. When
the sentries on the inside of the camp were
properly disposed, we were all to slip
through the inner fence and line up near
the loosened board, the first man was to
wrench it off and go through, and the rest
were to follow. Then we were to stQrm the
outer wire fence and climb over, feeling
sure that the size of our party would so
frighten the guards that they would be un-
able to fire until we were safe behind a row
of trees and bushes which grew only fifty
yards from the camp. After that it would
simply be a case of running through the
town to the forest beyond. On the way
four of us would drop out and make our
way to the basement mentioned before.
The others would divide up into twos and
threes and scatter.
All plans were completed, our food,
maps, and compasses assembled, and all
was in readiness by the morning of July
3d. The last letter to friends in town had
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Plans of Escape
been given to the Swiss guard and we
waited only for the darkness of midnight.
As the guards were relieved at II a.m. I
noticed a commotion of some kind at the
main gate. Hastening over I saw that our
guard had been searched and the letter
found in his clothes. Things happened rap-
idly then. The young aviator who had
written the letter was sent for, but he re-
fused to tell the names of the rest of us.
The commandant immediately telegraphed
to Berlin asking for instructions and the
guard was doubled both inside and outside
of the yard. Of course that plan was ruined,
but we did not lose hope.
The next day was the 4th of July and we
celebrated as best we could. Five American
aviators had just come, in and with them I
observed the Day. We collected as much
food as we could find, except, of course,
the reserve for escape purposes, which was
never touched no matter how hard-pressed
we were. One of the aviators had brought
in a tiny silk " Stars and Stripes," and with
this waving over the table we had our
banquet.
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The next "morning orders came from
Berlin to clear the camp of all officers.
That day nearly all the French and Brit-
ish officers were sent to camps in North-
ern Germany. Two British generals, some
Serbian and Italian officers, a few French
aviators, and I were left. With one of
the aviators I planned to get away that
night.
In one corner of the camp there was a
large tree which had very thick foliage and
one limb of which extended out over the
three fences. I conceived the idea of climb-
ing the tree before "Taps," which was at
eleven o'clock, hiding in the foliage until
about 1.30 a.m., then crawling out to the
end of the big limb, making fast a line,
and sliding down outside. A scheme similar
to this had been planned a few nights be-
fore by one of the American aviators and
myself, but we were unable to climb the
tree before "Taps" sounded and the sen-
tries ordered us inside our barracks.
I had some trouble in getting a line
which would hold our weight, but after
searching the camp thoroughly I finallv
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Plans of Escape
found an electric wire in the little theater
which the prisoners had built years before
in the center of the camp. This wire was
heavily insulated, and upon testing it we
found that it would hold our weight.
That night after dark we placed our re-
serve food in knapsacks, made from pieces
of an old shirt, and strapped them to our
backs. I wrapped the electric wire around .
my body, and then, draping blankets
about our shoulders in the manner of Ger-
man officers with their cloaks, we donned
caps furnished by some of the other officers
and left the barracks. This disguise would
aid us after we were outside the camp and
in getting out of the city. We walked di-
rectly to the tree, found the coast clear,
and climbed up. Soon the sentry in that
part of the yard walked over and took up
his position directly under us. He was re-
lieved at eleven o'clock and the next sen-
try never moved out of his tracks. He in
turn was relieved at I a.m. and the latter
again at 3 a.m., but for some unknown rea-
son they all refused to leave that spot. We
could not move for fear of making a noise.
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Prisoner of the U-90
It was cold and we were terribly cramped;
and it was not until after sunrise that we
were able to climb down and mingle un-
noticed with the other officers inside the
yard.
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CHAPTER X
THE BEST EFFORT
A few mornings later I was awakened by
an interpreter at six o'clock and told to be
ready to leave the camp in half an hour.
Rising hastily I dressed and then looked
around for some way of hiding my com-
pass, money, and maps. The food would
excite no suspicion; but I knew I should be
searched for contraband articles, as was
customary, and that, unless I could se-
crete these things in a way that no one
else had ever tried, they would surely be
found.
I had a jar of lard that the French com-
mittee had given me, and in this I placed
my compass. My money I put in a jar of
shaving-cream. For my maps only could I
find no hiding-place. I had several detailed
accounts of how French officers had es-
caped — their itineraries with notes and
plans — which had been smuggled back in
loaves of bread and bars of soap and in
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Prisoner of the U-90
other innocent-looking packages. But all
of these Ik to destroy. I put my faith in
one large general map, and finally hid it in
a box of cocoa that a British officer had
given me. I took out the paper lining of the
box and placed my map folded to the cor-
rect size inside. I then dusted some cocoa
over it and replaced the lining which, bag-
shaped, contained the rest of the cocoa.
Then with my knapsack full of food I re-
ported, to the Mess Hall.
I was told to take off my clothes. One
interpreter searched my knapsack while
another went through my clothing. The
latter took each garment separately,
kneaded it between his fingers, listening
the while for the rustle of paper, turned it
inside out, and finally cut open the seams
in places where it looked suspicious. Even
my insignia and gold stripes were cut open,
but of course nothing was found.
But in the meantime the contents of the
knapsack were having troubles of their
own. As soon as the interpreter espied the
jar of lard he reached for it. I was ahead of
him, and talking volubly, I thrust my fin-
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The Best Effort
ger in the jargon the side away from the
compass, showing him it was jl ., jy lard, and
explaining that I was taking it to the next
camp because I did not know if I should
find any there — and, of course, it was
very valuable, there being so little in Ger-
many, etc., etc. I talked in this strain until
he reached for something else. Soon he
came to the box of cocoa. With a long steel
needle he began feeling inside. I took this
opportunity to slide the jar of shaving-
cream back into the knapsack; and then,
as beads of perspiration slowly gathered
on my brow, I watched and prayed that
he would overlook the map. After what
seemed centuries to me he made one final
jab with his needle and put the box down.
I had won the first skirmish.
When the search was finished I was
marched by two guards to the railroad
station. On the way out of the camp I no-
ticed that the Serbian officers and some
Frenchmen who had come in during the
night were lining up to be also marched
away. There were about thirty of them
and they had four guards. A lone Ameri-
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Prisoner of the U-90
can usually had two. We arrived at the
station and boarded a train, and then the
guards told me we were bound for Villingen
in the Schwarzwald — or Black Forest, as
we call it.
I was unfortunate in having to travel in
the daytime, for at Karlsruhe we had al-
ways considered a passage on the train the
best time for making an attempt to escape,
provided the traveling was done at night.
The darkness would render it next to im-
possible for the guards to find a person if
he jumped from the train, even though he
might be wounded. Of course I did not
want to force the hand of Fate, but it
seemed that most of the opportunities had
been closed against me up to this time and
Fate therefore needed a little moral persua-
sion to open up those doors to me. So I
planned to jump from the train when the
time looked propitious, but preferably
when we had reached the point nearest the
Swiss frontier.
All the way down to Offenburg, which
we reached about noontime, the guards
watched me like hawks. There we changed
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The Best Effort
trains; and leaving the main line behind,
our train headed southward up into the
mountains. We were in a fourth-class car-
riage filled with German soldiers back from
the front on furlough, who obstructed the
passageway in the center of the coach and
thronged around the door. Little wooden
benches about three feet long jutted out
from both sides of the car toward the center.
On one of these I sat with one guard beside
me, the other on the next bench facing me.
Each held his gun pointed toward me and I
took pains to see that the guns were loaded.
About two o'clock in the afternoon we
reached a place called Sommerau, where
I noticed an engine was switched back.
Then we made higher speed, and of a sud-
den I realized what had happened. Up to
this time we had been making only ten or
twelve miles an hour and were on the up-
grade. At Sommerau we reached the crest
of the mountains and from then on were on
the downgrade. Had I known this before
I should have taken my chances with the
low speed, but it was now too late.
At three o'clock we were nearing Vil-
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Prisoner of the U-90
lingen. The train was making about forty
miles an hour and we were passing through
a valley which was rather thickly popu-
lated. The guns of the guards were still
pointed toward me and they did look ugly;
but the window near our seat was open and
I was sure that I could reach it at a bound,
so if they fired they would be just as likely
to hit one of the other passengers as me. It
was warm and close in the carriage and one
of the guards was dozing. I waited until
the other slightly turned his head to an-
swer a question put by one of the soldiers
with whom he had been talking. Then,
jumping up, with my knapsack hanging
from my neck, I leaped past both guards
and tried to dive through the window. It
was small, probably eighteen inches wide
and twenty-four inches high; and as there
was nothing on the outside of the car to
hold to, I had to depend on my momentum
and the weight of my head and shoulders
to carry the rest of my body along. My
head and shoulders went through nicely; and
then with the shouts of the guards ringing
in my ears I simply fell and all went dark.
Digitized byLjOOQlC
CHAPTER XI
PUNISHMENT
When I disappeared from view the guards
must have pulled the bell-rope, for the
train came to a stop about three hundred
yards farther along. In the meantime I had
landed on the track that paralleled the one
on which the train was running. The bed
was of crushed rock and the ties of steel.
My head struck one tie and I was stunned,
but rolled over and over; and the shak-
ing up must have brought me again to
my senses, for by the time the train had
stopped I was struggling to my feet.
Then I made a terrible discovery: my
knees had apparently struck the tie next to
the one that damaged my head, and when
I tried to run I found they were so cut and
bruised that I could not bend them. My
feet, too, had been cut across the insteps,
my body was all bruised, and my hands
and arms had small pieces of rock ground
in; but in spite of all this no bones were
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Prisoner of the U-90
broken. Had it not been for the condition
of my knees I should have been able to
make my escape; but by the time I was on
my feet trying to shuffle away, the guards
had descended from the train and were
rapidly advancing toward me firing as they
came.
I tried to run, but could make very little
headway, and soon I was exhausted. My
breath came in gasps and I finally fell to
the ground. I was dragging myself along by
pulling on the grass when the last shot
passed between my ear and shoulder and
buried itself in the ground in front of me.
The guards were then less than seventy-
five yards away, and I just had time to
turn over, raise myself to a half-sitting
and half-lying posture and elevate my
hands above my head as a sign that I sur-
rendered, before they were on me.
With fiendish fury the first guard, turn-
ing his gun end for end and grasping it by
the muzzle, rushed on me, and dealt me
a smashing blow on the head. It knocked
me unconscious and I rolled down the hill.
When I came to my senses I was lying in a
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shallow ditch at the foot of the hill and the
guards were cursing and kicking me trying
to make me get up.
Many of the people from the hayfields
near by had gathered to watch the fun.
Among them I noticed many women and
children and a few old men. One old vet-
eran with a pitchfork in his hands came
running up and offered his services to the
guards in case I should become dangerous.
No one in all that crowd offered a word of
sympathy or tried to remonstrate with my
captors in the punishment they were ad-
ministering — and these were the best peo-
ple of Germany, the pious, church-going
Baden peasants!
And I must have made such a pitiable-
looking spectacle! The blood was stream-
ing down my face from the wound in my
head where it had struck the railroad tie;
my trousers at the knees had been ground
into the flesh; and my hands were torn
and bleeding.
After a few minutes I was able to pull
myself to my feet; but I had no sooner
done so than one of the guards knocked
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Prisoner of the U-90
me down again with a blow on the back of
the head. With their heavy boots they
kicked me, and with their fists they
pounded me. Each time when they got me
to my feet, they would knock me down
again with a blow of their guns. The sev-
enth or eighth time I was felled to the
ground, one guard had passed behind me
and raising his gun full length had struck
me on the back of the head above the left
ear. The fact that the leather sling was be-
tween my head and the gun and acted as
a cushion when the blow was struck un-
doubtedly saved my life; for the force was
so terrific that I was knocked several feet
away, the gun broke in two at the small
of the stock, and for several days I was
totally deaf in the left ear.
Now all this time I had not even tried to
protect myself. Had I done so, it would
have given them the opportunity they
wanted of shooting me, and they would
have had many witnesses to testify that
I had resisted arrest. But a cold-blooded
murder in the presence of so many civilians
was a dangerous business; for if the truth
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ever leaked out, as was likely to happen
under those conditions, it would go hard
with the guards and perhaps with the mili-
tary authorities if it were taken up by my
Government and reprisals ordered. Things
like that were common enough behind the
lines at the front where there were no civil-
ians to tell the tale and where many dark
deeds could be done under the plea of mili-
tary necessity.
After the gun was broken I lay for a few
minutes on the ground unconscious. The
next thing I knew I was being beaten over
the neck and shoulders with a saw-edged
bayonet and driven back to the railroad
track. Better care was taken of the remain-
ing rifle, but there was little danger of
breaking the bayonet or the wooden soles
of those heavy boots. The train had not
waited, so we marched back to a signal
station a few hundred yards up the track.
There, while the guards inquired about the
next train, a woman in a farmhouse near
by was sent to fetch some bread and milk.
When she returned the guards paid her,
took the food, and compelled me to stand
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Prisoner of the U-90
at attention while they refreshed them-
selves. Then, deciding they would not wait
for the next train, they turned me around
and, prodding me with their bayonet and
gun, started me for Villingen and the
prison camp about five miles away.
As I shuffled along they would kick me
trying to make me go faster. Of course I
was walking practically stiff-legged, for I
could not bend my knees, and so did not
make the speed they desired. My knapsack
with all the food was still hanging from my
neck and before I had gone far the weight
began to tell. I had to march at attention
and could not raise my hand to ease the
strain.
Occasionally, in a burst of rage, one of
the guards would run up behind me and
knock me down with a blow from his gun
or fist — probably when he would remem-
ber how close he had come to losing me.
That would have meant for him at least
two weeks' solitary confinement or a trip
back to the trenches, which was much less
desirable than the easy garrison duty he
was performing at Karlsruhe.
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During one of these little spasms, when
one of the brutes had just struck me down
with his gun, two women and a man came
running out from a farmhouse and scolded
him roundly. Both guards answered very
insolently, but they desisted from their
brutal treatment while we were in sight
of that house, and then later on continued
the beating. This was the only time any
German ever said a word in my defense.
I shall never know how I bore up under
that torture. During the last mile I was
choking for breath and so weak I could
barely stand, but still I was prodded on-
ward. In my mind were two thoughts con-
tending for supremacy: that this was my
road to Calvary and I should bear my cross
like a man; and that I must live to ask
God for the privilege of being the instru-
ment of his vengeance against the German
people. Anyway, I refused to die. And
then between five and six o'clock we came
to the camp.
More dead than alive I staggered inside
the gate and fell in a heap on the guard-
house porch, I do not know how long I lay
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there; but later, when I became conscious,
I found myself on a bed in a cell of the
guard-house, with the commandant tower-
ing over me and bellowing in German that
if I attempted to escape again I should ,be
shot. An interpreter told me what he said,
although he condensed in one sentence
what it took the Oberstleutnant Ehrt five
minutes to deliver.
Ehrt, the commandant, was a fat, pork-
ish, scowling individual, the very image of
LudendorfF. When he had exhausted his
vocabulary (such words as "Schwein"
were by this time familiar to me), he left
the room and a doctor came in. We were
told later that he was a sophomore at a
medical college and had just been im-
pressed into the service. He treated my
wounds, covered my body with wet dress-
ings, and finally wrapped me from head to
feet with paper bandages. "Ah, you will
live to be hanged," he said, as, shaking his
head, he left the room.
My knapsack and clothes were then
given to the camp guards, and I heard
later that they had found my compass and
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money very easily, but could not find the
map. So they tore open all the seams of
my clothing and ripped off the soles and
heels of my shoes; but, finding nothing
more, finally gave up the search.
When the doctor left me the door was
closed and locked, and I quickly passed
into a deep sleep from which I did not
wake until late the following day. Imagine
my horror to find on awaking that my
body, which was one mass of cuts and
bruises, had been still further lacerated by
untold numbers of vermin with which the
cell was infested. And I was helpless! I
could move neither arms nor legs trussed
up as I was like a mummy. For three days
I endured this agony, but it was almost
unbearable. Of all my sufferings in Ger-
many I believe this was the worst. There
is probably in this little world of ours one
thing more poisonous than the German
fleas — and only one — and that is Ger-
man propaganda!
After the bandages were removed from
my arms and upper body (I was young and
my wounds healed rapidly), I was able to
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keep away most of the vermin, at least
while I was awake; but when finally time
had erased the worst marks of my beating,
my body was still covered with large red
eruptions. I shall always bear these scars.
Two months later my knees were entirely
healed, although I was able to walk within
three weeks.
About my sixth day in the cell I was
given a sort of court-martial at which were
present three German officers and an in-
terpreter. They asked me what I had to
say about my attempt to escape — where
I had obtained the money and compass
and if I had a map. As usual I gave them
very little information. I did tell them,
however, about my treatment at the hands
of the guards and the complaisance with
which it was viewed by their good people
of Baden. I told them that the inhabitants
of Southern Germany no longer enjoyed in
my estimation any higher pedestal than
the Prussians: and I pointed out that the
people of the Allied nations and especially
of America were, just about correct in their
opinion that the Germans were a brutal,
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beast-like race, when their civilians so
plainly showed themselves to be as bad as
their military. This one little incident am-
jply proved it, I said.
A few days later they told me that my
two guards were to be court-martialed and
.asked me to make a deposition as a wit-
ness. I did so, but as they translated it into
German I am not sure that I signed my
name to the exact truth. Anyway, I never
found out if the guards were really court-
martialed, and if they were whether it was
for inhuman treatment or for breaking the
gun — "destroying government property,"
as we say in the Navy.
After my court-martial, I was notified
that I had been condemned to two weeks'
solitary confinement in my cell as punish-
ment for attempting to escape. Those days
were terribly long and I should have
starved had it not been for the food sent
in to me by the American officers at the
camp, who asked for and obtained permis-
sion to do so. By this time several of them
had been in prison over three months and
were regularly receiving parcels from the
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Red Cross. They even sent me cigarettes,
but these I was not allowed to receive.
What a comfort they would have been in
those hours of loneliness!
At last my prison term was served. I
took one parting look at my hard bed, my
table and stool, and finally at the little .
barred window high up in the wall through
which a few rays of light sometimes found
their way, and without any regret followed
the guard to the court and the barracks
of the American officers. I had lost thirty
pounds weight and was very weak, but I
walked those fifty yards with a light step.
Hope had come again.
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CHAPTER XII
THE AMERICAN CAMP
With almost my first breath of fresh air, I
vowed that I would surely escape the next
time. If I had been lukewarm in my inten-
tion before, I was determined now.
I found the camp to be a rectangular-
shaped enclosure about one hundred and
fifty yards long and fifty yards wide. Low,
white barracks ran along the outside of the
rectangle; and a large assembly hall, a can-
teen building, a small music room, and a
library shack occupied the ground in the
center of the camp. There was space
enough left around this group of buildings
and between them and the barracks for a
tennis court, a volley-ball court, and a sort
of track around which we walked or ran to
get the exercise we needed.
Each barrack building was partitioned,
making the rooms about twenty-five by
thirty feet; and twenty prisoners were
supposed to occupy each room. The out-
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side windows of the barracks were covered
with iron gratings, and a few feet beyond
was a deep ditch filled with barbed-wire
entanglements and surmounted by a four-
foot barbed-wire fence. About eight feet
beyond the ditch and fifteen feet from the
windows of the barracks was a barbed-
wire fence about ten feet high, whose up-
per wires were bent inward out of the ver-
tical plane of the rest of the fence in such a
way as to prevent any one from climbing
over — a simple matter with wires straight
up and down. Patrolling outside the fence
was a line of sentries armed with rifles.
They were at first spaced about fifty yards
apart; but later there was a sentry every
twenty-five or thirty yards, and they
formed a regular cordon around the camp.
Inside the yard or court formed by the
barracks was one sentry who patrolled up
and down continuously.
The barracks were made of some kind of
stucco and were one story in height. They
sat on the ground and had no foundation,
although there was a cellar under each
barrack, built with the evident intention
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The American Camp
of making it impossible for the officers to
tunnel out under their rooms: for this
made access possible from the~ outside,
and six or eight times every day- and night
guards with flashlights inspected each cel-
lar looking for evidences of tunneling.
Since the building of the camp at the be-
ginning of the war (or before) five or six
tunnels had been constructed by the pris-
oners and many had succeeded in escaping
in this manner. I say "before" advisedly,
for the furniture in the barracks, which
consisted of an iron bed, a wooden locker,
and a small wooden stool for each dffi-
cer, was all marked 4C K. G. 1913," which
stands for"KriegsGefangenenlager 191 3,"
and which translated means "Camp for
Prisoners of War." As the world knows,
war was declared in 191 4.
Before we entered the war, the prisoners
at Villingen included Russian, French, and
British officers; but at the time of my ar-
rival there were only Russians and Ameri-
cans — about one hundred and fifty of the
former and forty of the latter. The Rus-
sians, many of whom had been there since
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1914, were terribly emaciated. Even then
they were as a class of larger stature than
the officers of any other nationality. Most
of them were excellent men, well educated,
and represented the best Russia could
produce; but there were a few Bolsheviki
among them. Since the defection of Rus-
sia, the fall of the monarchy, and the rise
of the Bolsheviki, parcels from home had
ceased coming, and the prisoners were
forced to depend almost entirely on the
ration from the Germans.
The Americans used to share their food
with the Russians, but at times the supply
ran very low. There were weeks when no
parcels from the Red Cross would get
through, perhaps owing to transportation
troubles, and then several parcels for each
officer would come together. Often the
boxes were plundered; but enough food
came through to make us independent of
the German ration.
The French and the British allowed par-
cels to any number to be sent to prisoners
in Germany; and these, coming from rela-
tives and friends, usually contained great
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The American Camp
quantities of candy and other luxuries,
while the Red Cross committees sent the
necessities. We, however, used to wonder
why no luxuries came from home until one
of the officers received from his family in
New York a list of the things that could be
sent from America — as somebody laugh-
ingly said, "one pair of shoe-laces per
month."
As a matter of routine we "paraded" in
the assembly hall at 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. for
muster. As each one's name was called he
stepped out of ranks and marched out of
the hall. A German reserve officer was al-
ways in charge, and he was assisted by an
under-officer who called the roll. The Ger-
mans had on duty at the camp four offi-
cers, one of whom, the commandant, was a
"regular"; also sixty or seventy soldiers,
who were there for guard duty principally,
but who were also called on, when off duty,
for any emergency that might arise.
We received no breakfast from the Ger-
mans, but at noontime soup followed by a
vegetable was served in two small rooms
one at either end of the yard, and the offi-
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cers ate there in two shifts. At first we had
only Russian soldiers for orderlies and
some of these acted as waiters. A knife,
fork, and spoon were furnished every offi-
cer when he arrived at the camp and we
carried them with us to meals; but the
plates that we used were kept at the mess
halls. At 6 p.m. supper was served: soup
again with sometimes a vegetable and
sometimes a bit of jam. I have already de-
scribed this most unpalatable stuff, and in
fact nothing that was ever served to us
could truthfully be called palatable.
Every Wednesday and Sunday noon, ex-
cept during meatless weeks, which came
every third week, we were given a tiny
piece of meat which had had the blood
squeezed out of it, and which by actual
measurement was one inch wide, two and
one half inches long, and one eighth of an
inch thick. One day I got a ruler and veri-
fied these measurements, so I know they
are correct.
Every week the Germans hung up a
menu in the mess halls, showing an elabo-
rate programme for each day of the week.
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The American Camp
Once, to satisfy my curiosity, I looked at
it and found that for supper we were to
have soup, barley, potatoes, carrots, and
cabbage — a veritable function. That
night when the supper was served I found
our old stand-by soup, with half a dozen
grains of barley in it, and a dish of mush
that might have been at one time the three
Vegetables mentioned above; but that
menu would be strong evidence of the
humanitarian way in which the Germans
treat their prisoners !
Two of the barracks next to the main
gate were used as the guard-house and the
office building respectively. The first one,
the guard-house, had a room for the officer
of the day, a room for the sergeant of the
watch, two cells, one of which I had occu-
pied, and a few small rooms for the relief
watch. The next barrack building had sev-
eral rooms used as offices by the comman-
dant and his assistants; also a large dormi-
tory used by the guards off watch; and one
other room in which was kept the food we
received from the Red Cross.
At the end of one of the barracks was
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the latrine for officers and orderlies. It was
the dirtiest and most insanitary place I
have ever seen. Why all of us were not ill
from it is incomprehensible, for the order-
lies were frightfully unclean and most of
them diseased. They were all Russians of
the most ignorant class and only a few
could read and write. Whenever word was
received that visitors were coming, such as
inspecting officers and embassy officials,
the latrine was cleaned; those were the
only times.
The lighting at the camp was by elec-
tricity. There were many lights inside the
yard and a complete row ran around the
outside of the barracks perhaps twenty-
five feet above the ground. Also a few very
powerful lights were on high poles outside
the camp and lighted up the fields in the
immediate vicinity.
The prison camp was situated on the
western outskirts of Villingen. There were
no houses of any kind near it, except the
caserne of the Villingen battalion, which
was across the street. It was filled at the
time of my arrival with about five hundred
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The American Camp
seventeen-year-old youths, and every day
and night they were engaged in drill and
target practice. Many times at I and 2
a.m. we were awakened by the singing as
they marched down the road to or from
the practice trenches a mile or so away.
"Sing!" would shout the drill sergeants as
they whacked one lad here and another
there with the flat of their swords. And all
would burst out with "Die Wacht am
Rhein," or some other patriotic German
air.
One day in August away marched the
"Ersatz" battalion as the Villingen news-
paper, the " Schwarzwalder," called it.
They were escorted to the train by a band;
and the townsfolk gathered to throw flow-
ers in their path and to bid them good-
bye.
At Karlsruhe also we had often seen
youngsters marching past the camp on
their way to the station; and, attracted by
their singing, the Frenchmen and I would
mount tables and peer over the high board
fence that obstructed our view of every-
thing outside. "Ah," the Frenchmen
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would say, "they sing to forget their hun-
ger!"
When the older boys left for the front
the caserne at Villingen was immediately
filled with a new class — the sixteen-year-
olds, as the guards told us. And then their
military training commenced.
So this was the place where I was des-
tined to spend three months of my exist-
ence; fortunately the armistice put an end
to the taking of prisoners, or more of our
officers would have come to know it as a
place to be left with little regret..
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CHAPTER XIII
ROUTINE
The forty Americans I found at Villingen
included twenty of our doctors who had
gallantly volunteered to serve with the
British before our armies were ready. Most
of them were taken in the German "push"
on March 23 d. Then there were a half-
dozen merchant officers taken by the Ger-
man raider Wolff. The remainder were line
officers. Later in the summer the Ameri-
can aviators who had been imprisoned at
Landshut, in Bavaria, were sent to our
camp, and by October 1st we numbered
eighty.
We used to "turn out" about eight
o'clock every morning, cook our breakfast
from Red Cross food, and then answer
roll-call at nine. We formed ourselves into
messes of four or five officers and took
turns preparing the meals and drawing the
food. When the Red Cross parcels came
they were taken to the room in the office
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building mentioned before. Here they
were opened in the presence of the offi-
cer to whom addressed and everything
searched to see if they contained any con-
traband. The packages of sugar, coffee,
hard bread, and the like were opened and
given to us; and the canned goods were
placed in a box and kept there to be drawn
out when needed.
Every afternoon, except when the Ger-
mans were feeling indisposed, we could
draw our canned goods at a certain hour.
We would take over dishes in which to
place the food; and the interpreter and as-
sistants would open the cans we wanted
and dump the contents into the dishes.
Then they would throw the cans (some-
times still partly filled with meat, butter,
or condensed milk) into a large box, from
which they were afterwards taken and sent
to the kitchen. Here they were boiled and
the grease extracted. Nothing went to
waste in Germany — not even our food !
After morning roll-call we usually had
a few games of volley-ball; and in good
weather some of the officers would play
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Routine
tennis on the one court, which, by the way,
was built by the Russians before any
Americans came to the camp. Even the
music room, library, and assembly hall
were constructed with their money, when
a year or two before they had decided to
make themselves as comfortable as possi-
ble since the war insisted on lasting so
long.
When I first reached Villingen I was the
senior American officer at the camp. I was
not treated as such, however, by the Ger-
mans, who could not forgive me for my
attempt to escape; but finally when they
found that none of the other officers would
take the responsibility, and that all con-
sidered me to be the senior officer by our
standards, the commandant gave in.
He sent for me several times when some-
thing went wrong; and whenever there
were any requests to be made I took them
to him personally. I believe I can truth-
fully say that he never granted any. I re-
member one was to allow us to go out to
church in Villingen on Sunday. We had no
chaplains in camp, so Catholics and Prot-
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Prisoner of the U-90
estants alike were desirous of attending
divine services at the German churches in
town. We offered to give our parole, but as
usual the request was refused.
At first the Americans and Russians
took walks together every morning except
Sunday. We gave our word of honor not to
attempt to escape, so were not guarded;
but one German officer went along to di-
rect the promenade. Some of the Russians
used to drop out of the line and buy food
at the peasants' houses. They exchanged
camp money with the guards for good Ger-
man money and with this they bought
whatever the peasants could spare them —
sometimes an egg or two, sometimes a
small bottle of milk. Twice they were seen
by the officer in charge of the walking
party bargaining with the peasants; and
the commandant threatened to discon-
tinue our walks if it occurred again. Of
course prisoners were forbidden to have
any intercourse with the civil popula-
tion.
Finally the Russians were caught again
and the walks were discontinued. Then I
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Routine
went to the commandant and threatened
to report it to the Spanish Embassy (who
were supposed to be caring for the rights of
Americans in Germany) if he did not allow
us to continue this form of exercise. We
were entirely innocent; although had we
been as hungry as the Russians, we too
should have been anxious to buy food at
any price, all the laws of the country not-
withstanding.
Although no agreement existed between
America and Germany about the treat-
ment of prisoners of war, it was a well-
recognized fact in all prison camps that the
prisoners were entitled to a tramp in the
country a certain number of times a week.
Other nationalities took these walks except
the poor Russians who had no one to look
after them; and the commandant, know-
ing this, agreed to allow us to go three
times a week. Later on he gave the Rus-
sians two more chances, in both of which
they were found trading with the peasants;
so their walking privilege was finally re-
scinded entirely.
These walks were great events for us.
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We would leave the camp about nine-
thirty and return about eleven-thirty. At
first we could choose our own direction,
but toward the last the officer in charge of
the party would take the road that best
suited him. If it were damp or rainy we
were not allowed to go. Several times we
had only one or two trips a week. We liked
long brisk walks, but seldom did we get
farther than two miles away from the
camp. The change, however, from the
gravel dirt of our prison yard to the restful
green of the neighboring forest, was a great
relief to us.
It was on these walks that we came in
contact with the peasants and in touch
with the real conditions existing in that
part of Germany. On one occasion when
passing a hayfield filled with women and
children, I inquired of some the size of
their families and the ages of the young-
sters. The smallest family had eight chil-
dren, but two families contained thirteen
each. One party had a little boy two ajid a
* half years old raking hay into piles in imi-
tation of his elder brothers and sisters. An-
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Routine
other had a three-year-old girl doing the
same. Still no waste in Germany!
After our morning exercise most of the
officers would get their textbooks of foreign
languages and with a companion to point
out the mistakes and help in correcting
them they would study until noontime.
The languages most preferred were French
and German. Among the Russians were
many who could speak both these tongues
and who were therefore invaluable to us as
teachers.
Owing to the treatment I had already
received at the hands of the v is, I re-
fused to have anything to do with German;
for I was determined to exterminate the
race and render the further use of their
language unnecessary. French I was ac-
quainted with, so I had no distractions
from the important duty ahead of me.
With a few others I gave all my time and
attention to the making of maps and the
collection of material to make an escape
possible. Later events rewarded our perse-
verance.
About noontime the German newspa-
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pers would come. Then, while one of our
doctors who spoke German read the offi-
cial communiques, the rest of us would
gather round and breathlessly listen to the
news. We bribed the man at the canteen
to get us maps of the Western Front and
in this way kept ourselves informed of the
varying fortunes of our armies.
We could not receive any Allied news-
papers; and while the Germans published
our communiques in their papers, they
usually omitted to mention the number of
prisoners we took. And if we made any ad-
vance it was explained away by merely
saying: "We fell back to previously pre-
pared positions, exacting a heavy toll from
the enemy. In this way we are conserving
our man power. The British and French
are suffering frightful losses," etc., etc.
Two newspapers printed in English
were sent to the camp and distributed in
our barracks. One, "The Continental
Times," edited by a renegade Englishman
by the name of Aubrey Stanhope, was
openly hostile to the Allied cause and was
filled with invective against President Wil-
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Routine
son and the other Allied leaders. The other,
"America in Europe," we believed to be
edited by some one who had formerly been
at the head of a German propaganda bu-
reau in the United States. It appeared un-
der a friendly guise and was so written as
to deceive a casual reader; but the poison
was bound to be discerned sooner or later.
Both papers after July pleaded for the dis-
continuance of the terrible war, "for hu-
manity's sake." When the insults against
the President became so obvious we de-
manded of the commandant that he cease
sending the papers into the camp. The
only result of this demand was their even
more regular appearance in our midst.
When the papers were read we had our
dinner. If there was anything edible in the
mess hall, we would carry it back to our
barracks, mix some Red Cross food with it,
and have lunch, as we called it. Sometimes
we would prepare a dish or two and have it
cooked by the French soldiers who formed
the kitchen crew under the German chef;
for our own facilities for cooking were very
limited. We bought a small cook-stove for
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each barrack through the canteen man,
or from Russians when they left the camp;
and although twenty officers were a large
number for each stove, still it could be
done if we had wood enough. As it was, we
were allowed only a few sticks as our ration
each week, and of course were charged
unheard-of prices for it.
In the afternoon we again played volley-
ball and then studied until supper-time.
For the evening meal we prepared a larger
amount of food and called it dinner. After
the first week I never entered the mess
hall; but in our barrack with three other
officers I enjoyed the preparation and eat-
ing of the three meals and the ceremony
we made of each. When one of us received
a private parcel from friends or relatives in
France or England, it always contained
tea; so we were able at times to enjoy that
little function known as "afternoon tea."
Usually after the evening roll-call it was
light enough for a "championship" game
of volley-ball, and then every one prome-
naded around the yard. The remainder of
the evening was spent in playing cards.
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The lights in the barracks were never
turned on until it was completely dark and
at ten-thirty they were turned off again.
After II p.m. no prisoners were allowed in
the yard and frequent inspections were
made after that hour to see that we were
in our beds and that quiet prevailed.
Many nights, especially after an Allied
victory, we would gather and sing all the
patriotic airs we could think of. And then
after we had "turned in" we would regale
the guards with a few bars of "Oh, My
Dear Augustine."
"Ock doo leeber Hinden-dorf, Luden-
berg, Hinden-dorf, Ock doo leeber Luden-
berg, Alius Kapoot," would boom out
from our barracks; and several times they
called out the guard and threatened to
shoot if the disturbance was not instantly
stopped. "Alius Kapoot" was our Ameri-
can pronunciation of a little phrase mean-
ing "You are finished." Of course, the fol-
lowing morning the senior officer was almost
finished by the commandant when he heard
of the proceedings of the night before.
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CHAPTER XIV
INCIDENTS
The summer of 1918 must have been an
exceptional one for the " Schwarzwald,"
otherwise it would be hard to account for
the number of summer hotels in the forest
near Villingen. I had heard that that part
of Germany* was considered an excellent
summering place; but we had only six real
summer days during the three months I
was there. Most of the time I wore a heavy
overcoat that I had obtained from a Brit-
ish officer; and although it rained only two
or three days each week, still it was cold
and cloudy every day — and our barracks
were not heated.
The nights especially were cold — so
cold in fact that we had to pile all our
clothing and other belongings on our beds
in order to sleep. This was in July and
August. Very severe frosts were experi-
enced in August and they ruined the po-
tato crop of that part of the country. Such
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disagreeable weather had a very depress-
ing effect on us. Besides, it was not until
September that we began to receive hope-
ful news from the front.
As for mail from home, it was nearly
four months after I was taken prisoner be-
fore I received any letters; and that was
the experience of most of the other officers.
When mail came it was placed in some
kind of acid for ten days or two weeks to
bring out any writing in sympathetic ink
and was then given to us. But the inter-
preter knew so little English that it was
several weeks later before he caught up
with our letters. Some that contained such
words as "Hun," "Boche," and the like,
were smeared with black ink so that the
whole letter was indecipherable. Of course
these were thie ones we received — many
never got that far.
We were allowed to write two letters and
four post-cards a month; and, naturally,
nothing detrimental to the Germans could
be mentioned or the letters found a perma-
nent resting-place in the waste-basket.
From the Y.M.C.A. at Berlin we were
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able to get athletic goods of certain kinds,
such as Indian clubs, volley-balls, and some
indoor baseballs. But we had so little space
in which to play! I asked for permission to
use the adjoining fields as a playground,
giving our parole every time we left the
camp; but the request was not granted, so
we had to content ourselves with the single
volley-ball court we built next to the ten-
nis court.
A few of our officers were so badly
wounded as to be entirely incapacitated
for further duty. We asked that steps be
taken to have these men sent to a neutral
country where they would at least receive
the medical attention they needed. Upon
being rebuffed by the commandant, I
wrote the Spanish Ambassador asking him
to send a representative with whom we
could take up this and other grievances.
Apparently the letter was never received.
Before I arrived at the camp a member
of the Spanish Embassy at Berlin had vis-
ited the Americans, and after hearing their
complaints, had left, promising to take up
the matter with the German Government
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and to send an official at least once a month
to see how conditions were at the camp.
Nothing happened. Late in September,
after an absence of four or five months,
some one purporting to be from the Span-
ish Embassy came to Villingen and asked
how we were getting along!
Neither the Red Cross nor the Y.M.C.A.
could have any representatives in the
camp or even in the vicinity. Had this been
allowed, a closer check could have been
kept on the food and other things sent us,
our needs determined, and relief measures
adopted at once instead of waiting two
months for our correspondence to make
the circuit.
Fleas at the camp were so numerous as
to make life miserable, and it was impos-
sible to get any disinfectant from the Ger-
mans, although we asked the commandant
and finally the doctor. It would have been
a small matter to fumigate the barracks,
but we were only prisoners so it was not
considered necessary.
We were compelled to salute every Ger-
man officer Of no matter what rank. Most
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of their officers at prison camps were re-
serve sergeants promoted to be second lieu-
tenants for the duration of the war. Still
Allied generals and colonels had to salute
them.
Most of the foreign services slightly in-
cline the head when exchanging the hand
salute, but this reaches the state of servil-
ity in Germany. There, a junior saluting
a senior, not only inclines the head, but
bends the whole body. The Germans ex-
pected us to do the same, but this was en-
tirely contrary to our principles, so we re-
fused.
One day, while most of us were on a
walk in the country, the commandant met
one of our officers in the yard and noticed
that the salute was not what his German
inferiors usually accorded him. So he
called the young officer to the office and
proceeded to admonish and finally to
fcftreaten him. A few minutes later, when
we returned from our walk, the interpreter
came to me and said that the commandant
felt he was not being given the proper sa-
lute by the American officers; and he there-
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fore ordered that in the future the German
salute be rendered. I sent back word "that
the salute as rendered by the American
officers was that ordered by our Govern-
ment. Furthermore, it was a sign of re-
spect, not of servility, and while we wished
to show the proper amount of respect we
would be servile to no one. Therefore we
refused to change our manner of saluting."
Nothing ever came of this and we contin-
ued our own salute.
We found the stupidity of the Germans
beyond belief. Anything that had hap-
pened once they were prepared for. Or
anything that they had heard about might
be likely to happen again. But something
original would catch them utterly unpre-
pared. Several times we hid contraband
under their very noses, but it was not dis-
covered because that particular thing hu<*
never been tried before.
They used to send an officer to inspe :
our barracks once or twice every night.
This was to see if we had gone out un-
known to them. The times for the inspec-
tions varied. Sometimes they would come
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Prisoner of the U-90
in about midnight, make the rounds of all
the beds, using a flashlight to see if they
were occupied, and then go out. A few
minutes later they would hurry back hop-
ing thereby to nip some plan. Two or three
times a bundle of clothes took the place of
a prisoner in his bunk, but the inspecting
officer saw a sleeping (?) shape and was
satisfied*
One night an officer happened to be out
of his bed getting a drink of water at the
faucet in the center of the yard when in-
spection was made. "Hal an escape !" The
bed belonged to one of the merchant ma-
rine officers, a man over sixty years old,
but nevertheless he must have escaped I
The inspecting officer ran over to the
guard-house, aroused the relief guard of
forty men and the officer of the day, and
then with the latter in tow hurried back to
take another look at the empty bed.
But in the meantime the occupant had
returned. And then there was a real mysr-
tery. The prisoners who understood Ger-
man could hear the conversation that
ensued. "Surely some one had escaped be-
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Incidents
cause the bed had been found empty; and
although it was now occupied, it looked
very suspicious." They finally posted half
the relief guard as a cordon around the
camp and the remainder were detailed to
search the cellars for the man who was ab-
sent from his bed at the first inspection!
Those cellars were the bane of the
guards' existence. The Russians had tun-
neled out so many times that if an escape
were ever made the cellars had something
to do with it — so argued the Germans.
Tunneling had been attempted, but no
other way had been tried; therefore they
were prepared for the former, but would be
utterly bewildered if anything else should
happen. That is wh)rl determined that in
all my plans of escape I would stay off the
beaten track in everything and base my
hopes on the old military principle of do-
ing what the enemy least expected.
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CHAPTER XV
PLANS
After my two weeks of solitary confine-
ment in the cell I found I could hardly
walk. I was not only weak, but my
wounded knees were not mended. In an-
other two weeks, however, I could walk
very well and was gaining weight and
strength rapidly. I knew that in order to
escape I must be in good physical condi-
tion, so I laid down rules to be followed in
my training. With several other officers I
arose at seven o'clock every day and took
a series of calisthenics, finishing off with a
cold shower bath — which was one of the
few luxuries we enjoyed there. We were
allowed only one hot bath each week.
Besides those exercises I walked around
the yard, at first slowly and for not more
than a half-hour each day, increasing this
gradually, until by the first of October I
was walking fifteen miles a day. I had
measured the track and there were seven
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laps to the mile, so by the time I had com-
pleted one hundred and five laps every day
I was a familiar figure to the Germans.
There was little danger of arousing their
suspicions further, however, for I had al-
ready told them that I considered it my
duty to escape. Anyway, they felt sure
their defenses at the camp were secure, and
only wondered why I should be so foolish
as to wear out shoe leather when no shoes,
nor even leather, could be obtained in
Germany at any price.
Wooden-soled shoes were worn by the
soldiers; and the peasants all wore shoes
made entirely of wood. We were able to
buy a few good pairs, however, from Brit-
ish "Tommies" at Karlsruhe. They had
been captured long before and were receiv-
ing two pairs per year from their Govern-
ment. In escaping, a solid pair of shoes was
a strict necessity, and we considered a hun-
dred dollars a small price to pay for them.
Now plans for an escape were properly
divided into three parts : first, those cover-
ing the get-away from the camp; second,
those dealing with the march from the
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camp to the frontier; and, third, those
looking to the evasion of the guards at the
frontier and the getting across.
I at first busied myself with a scheme
whereby I could leave the camp, secretly if
possible, but if not secretly, then with a
minimum of danger. I came to the conclu-
sion that there was only one way of getting
out of the camp undetected and that was
by tunneling out. This had been tried by
the Russians with more or less success, as
mentioned before.
On one occasion they had completed a
tunnel and were ready to break through
the ground on the outside when an anony-
mous letter told the commandant of their
scheme. Another time a tunnel was built
directly under the commandant's office
and under the road in front of the camp;
but this was discovered before completion
and the one prisoner found working in it
was awarded eighteen months in a peni-
tentiary for "endangering a military
road."
A very successful tunnel had been con-
structed earlier in the war. Nearly all the
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prisoners were to leave the camp through
it, and seven had actually* made their way
out when the eighth man, in crawling out
of the hole on the outside, made some
noise and was discovered by the sentry
standing a few feet away. The sentry ran
to the spot and prevented any more com-
ing out.
In the four years of the war over fifty
prisoners had escaped from Villingen
camp, practically all by means of tunnels.
Of these, only one crossed safely to Swit-
zerland; and his companion's body was
found near the frontier riddled with bul-
lets. I believe they said forty bullet wounds
were counted in the corpse. This could
hardly be called cheering news!
The construction of a tunnel took sev-
eral months and there was great danger of
discovery at any time. The German news-
papers were boasting that their U-boats
were still sinking ten thousand tons of Al-
lied shipping per day, and I felt that every
day I tarried at Villingen meant that much
loss to us — for I had great confidence in
my ability to find the holes in our block-
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ade where their submarines were getting
through and hoped that we should be able
to plug them up. Speed, therefore, was
vital to the success of my plans and I
looked around for other ways of taking
leave.
At one end of the camp the barrack
building had been turned into a work-shed
and the roof sloped up from the inside to
the outside edge. The space between this
shed and the outer fence had subsequently
been filled by a low building fitted for the
housing of rabbits and pigs. Its roof was,
perhaps, three feet lower than the roof of
the work-shed; but since it abutted, a per-
son could step from one roof to the other
without difficulty. The outer edge of the
smaller building came to the top of the high
barbed-wire fence encircling the camp, and
was snug against it; so that anyone could
drop down from the roof and find himself on
the outside of the camp with only the line
of sentries to pass. There was one obstacle
in the way, however. A piece of barbed
wire about three feet high had been
stretched across the roof of the little build-
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ing, perhaps two feet from the outer edge.
It was little more than an impediment to
speed, for it would be a simple matter to
climb over this wire, land on the edge of
the roof, and then jump to the ground less
than ten feet below.
I reviewed the whole thing in my mind.
I would tell my plan to the other Ameri-
cans and I was sure that several of them
would want to try it. We would build a
ladder and by this means climb up to the
roof of the work-shed. This could be done
without discovery, provided we watched
the position of the inside sentry and made
no noise. Each man, after climbing to the
roof, would lie down in such a way as not
to be visible from the outside. When the
last man was up we should all rise at a
given signal, run up the sloping roof of the
work-shed, step down to the next roof,
climb the wire, and then jump to the
ground. The sentries seeing so many men
bearing down on them would be too fright-
ened to fire; and inasmuch as the time from
our discovery to our passing them would
not be more than five or six seconds, I was
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sure we should all get away. A short run
from that end of the camp would put us
out of range of their fire, so the only dan-
ger was in the few seconds we should spend
in getting over.
I wasted no time in communicating my
plans to my fellow prisoners. I convinced
them that the scheme was one hundred
per cent perfect — in fact, it did hold
greater chances of success than all the
other plans of escape I made while in
prison. Six officers decided to make the at-
tempt with me and so we began our prepa-
rations.
Maps and compasses were bought from
the Russians for food and money. Tools of
different kinds were obtained from the
German sentries. Strange as it may seem,
I never tried to bribe a guard in vain. In
truth, it was our experience that any one
in Germany could be bribed, provided you
negotiated with him when he was alone. If
two were together, nothing could be done
with them. A bit of coffee or tea or a tin of
meat would buy a guard to do almost any-
thing, and for a cake of soap one might ex-
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pect the impossible. We used to say at the
camp, "Give me a bar of soap and I will
buy the Kaiser's daughter." The reason
why more prisoners do not escape through
bribery is because no one guard has it in
his power to bring this about without the
knowledge of other guards ; and since they
fear one another, they will engage in noth-
ing that might put them in another Ger-
man's power.
No material of any kind was ever al-
lowed in a prisoner's possession. For in-
stance, no stick of wood longer than six
inches was ever permitted to enter our
barracks. This made ladder-building diffi-
cult. But in the tennis court there were
two wooden battens about eighteen feet
long, two and one half inches wide, and one
inch thick, held together with two or three
cross-pieces to make a marker for the
court; and these I depended on for our
ladder. I could not remove them, how-
ever, until the last minute, or it would be
noticed.
Now if the attempt could be made in the
darkness we felt the chances of success
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would be even greater. At Karlsruhe and
most of the other camps the electric wires
were covered with heavy insulation, but at
Villingen they were bare. It looked feasible
to throw wires across and short circuit all
the lights and so plunge the camp in dark-
ness. But we had no wire. The only thing
of its kind was a single strand of flexible
wire enclosing the tennis court. So one
night one of the officers stole out to the
court and brought in to me as much of it
as he could tear down. Then I cut it into
small lengths and bent them into links about
ten inches long. These I connected; and as
a result I had four chains about thirty feet
long. I used to work with my hands un-
der the bedclothes to avoid discovery by
the guards. By the time I had finished the
chains my fingers were in shreds, for the
wire was sharp and stiff and we had few
tools.
All these preparations took several days,
and it was about the middle of August be-
fore we were ready to make the attempt.
We had studied the maps and planned our
line of march. Once outside the camp we
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were to divide up into groups of twos and
threes and proceed in that manner to the
frontier, no two groups trying to cross at
the same point. I paired off with Willis,
sub-lieutenant in the Lafayette Esca-
drille, French Aviation Service, who had
been captured fourteen months before, and
who, although an American, was the only
officer of the French Army in our camp.
We were to take as much food as we
could carry, or at least as much as we
could escape with. About the last of July
I had received my first parcel from the
American Red Cross at Berne. It was
what they called the "emergency parcel,"
and it should have contained a complete
change of clothing and a large quantity of
food. When it arrived all the clothing had
been taken out and most of the food. I be-
lieve there were two cans of salmon and a
few packages of hardtack in the box. There-
after my parcels came in better condition;
and of the eight boxes I received while in
Germany, five were practically intact.
Others were less fortunate than I, how-
ever. One aviator in particular received in
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Prisoner of the U-90
each of five boxes only a few packages of
hardtack. But whatever came to the camp
was shared by every one; and, especially
in an escape, we had no difficulty in ob-
taining food.
About the time our preparations were
completed rainy weather set in. This was
ideal for our attempt, because the night
would be doubly dark after the lights
went out, and because the sentries would
be inside their little boxes with their guns
slung over their backs; and it would be
several seconds before they could be in
position to fire.
I remember it was a Thursday night
and we were impatiently waiting for eleven
o'clock, the hour agreed on, when about
nine o'clock the rain ceased and the clouds
disappeared. We decided to postpone it.
The following morning I was determined
to go, no matter what the weather was, so
I passed the word to the other six officers
Ahat we should go that night.
All was in readiness to go when at the
last moment two of the officers decided the
plan was too risky. The rest of us debated
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on what to do. Although that left only five
of us and the smaller number lessened our
chances of success, I was in favor of going
anyway. We finally compromised on the
following plan: We should go Monday
night and spend the intervening time try-
ing to influence a few more of the officers
to make the attempt with us.
When we awoke the following morning
a working party of Germans were busy
tearing down the small piece of wire over
the shed and erecting a barbed-wire fence
about twenty feet high all along that end
of the yard. There must be some truth in
the epigram, "He who hesitates is lost."
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CHAPTER XVI
MORE TROUBLES
I was deeply chagrined at the loss of such
a fine opportunity, but I looked around
for other ways and means. We were in
daily fear of a search of our clothing and
quarters, and it was difficult to find hid-
ing-places for our escape material. My
maps and compass I gave to one of the
"regular" Russian officers, and he also
kept some clothes for me that I expected
to wear when I escaped. They looked much
less like a uniform than the rags I was
wearing at camp; and in case I was seen on
the march to the frontier I could perhaps
pass as a civilian.
At camp we wore whatever clothes we
could get, but if 'they too closely resembled
civilian dress, the Germans would cut a
piece about two inches wide out of each
trouser leg and insert a piece of brown cloth
— which stripe was recognized throughout
Germany as identifying the wearer as a
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More Troubles
prisoner. A similar band of brown was
worn around the left sleeve. I obtained a
black coat such as is worn by the British
"Tommies," and before the escape I was
able to dye the band in the left sleeve so
that it would not be taken as a prisoner's
coat. Willis had smuggled in two pack-
ages of black dye and we were able to dye
several articles for the other members of
our party.
Before trying the last plan of escape I
had promised Willis to adopt his scheme
in case mine failed. He was our best smug-
gler and was also a very successful briber,
for he could speak German tolerably well.
Among his collections were a set of art-
ist's water-colors, some pens, and a magni-
fying glass. With these assistants he set
about duplicating our word-of-honor cards.
Instead, however, of writing, "I will not
make any attempt to escape," he wrote,
"I will now make an attempt to escape,"
and we "camouflaged" our signatures.
We were to hand these in on a Monday
when we went for our walk, and I had the
job of smearing them up and treating them
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Prisoner of the U-90
roughly so they would look enough like the
originals to pass muster.
Willis had done a very clever piece of
work and no one could detect the substitu-
tion. The Saturday before we were to go,
the Russian officers were given a walk and
one of them turned in somebody else's
card as his own; and dropping out of the
formation a mile from camp, headed for
the frontier. He was subsequently recap-
tured, but the system was immediately
changed, and thereafter we were required
to sign another list in the presence of a
German officer, as well as to hand in our
cards, every time we took a walk. There
was no way of beating that system. It was
a big disappointment, and Fate surely
seemed to be against us; but we began to
try again.
At a certain part of the yard the bar-
racks were discontinued for a distance of
thirty yards, and the space between was
defended by a high board fence with sev-
eral feet of barbed wire on top. In the cen-
ter of the fence was a heavy wooden gate
large enough for a team of horses to pass
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More Troubles
through. The space between this inner
fence and the outer one, at this one point
about twenty yards across, was used as a
garden. It contained growing onions and
potatoes.
We conceived the idea of getting through
the gate with ladders, crossing the garden,
placing the ladders against the outer fence,
and going over. The lights were to be put
out as in the first scheme, for we still had
the wire chains. Only a means must be
found of getting through the gate and of
building the ladders. Two infantry offi-
cers from our first party were still in the
"game" and we had six aviators as re-
cruits. That made ten in all. Willis pro-
posed to make a key for the gate and I
planned to build the ladders. It seemed
best to put only two officers on each ladder
so that meant that five would be needed.
We would line up in the shadow of the
fence and when the lights were extin-
guished would open the gate, rush out, and
plant our ladders at intervals along the
outer fence. The guards would be unable
to tell just where we were and would be
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Prisoner of the U-90
greatly confused by the numerous attacks
all along the line. In six or eight seconds
we should all be over and running toward
some trees not far away. It looked like a
good plan and some of us at least should
get away.
I had a big contract to fill, and at the
time I was at a loss to know where the ma-
terial for those five ladders was to come
from. But just about that time several
more officers came to the camp and an-
other barrack was opened. There were only
a half-dozen officers and the room con-
tained beds for twenty, so I planned to
take the wooden slats of the beds not in
use and by splitting them make the sides
for the ladders. The rungs would be tops
and sides of Red Cross food boxes which
we should have to steal from the Germans.
It would be impossible to nail the rungs
to the sides, for the noise would attract the
guards, so we went through the camp on a
"still hunt" for screws. In a few days the
slats were split, put back on the empty
beds, and covered with the mattress
springs. A large number of tops of food
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More Troubles
boxes were stolen and holes bored in each
end. Over a hundred screws were collected
from all the doors in the camp and all that
remained for me to do was to assemble this
material.
The Russian officers occupied the bar-
racks near the gate through which We ex-
pected to make our exit, and all this mate-
rial would have to be taken to one of their
rooms and assembled there near the place
where we were to use them. The guards in
the yard would have become suspicious
had we carried them through the camp
preparatory to using them. We found one
senior officer's room occupied by a "regu-
lar" army lieutenant (Russian), and when
he heard our plans he was insistent that we
use his room; although if discovered he had
everything to lose and nothing to gain.
The night set for the attempt Willis was
to have his key completed, and I, assisted
by some of the other officers, was to carry
the ladder material to the Russian's room
and assemble it a few minutes before the
escape. It was a perfect night for our plan,
dark and windy. Willis had been unable to
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Prisoner of the U-90
give the key the final test before dark ow-
ing to the position of the inside sentry, who
hovered around that part of the yard, but
as he expected no trouble with it I went
ahead with the ladders. Accompanied by
two of the aviators I collected the slats in a
pile, threw a large blanket around them,
and picking them up walked hurriedly
through the yard to the Russian officer's
room.
The slats were six feet long, eight inches
wide, and one inch thick. When split, ir-
regularly, it is true, they were not so cum-
bersome, and when turned on edge would
support a man's weight. The fence being
ten feet high made it necessary to take two
pieces for each side, overlap them a foot or
more, and screw them together.
The bundle of twenty pieces made a
parcel six feet long and eighteen inches in
diameter, and was very noticeable even
with a blanket over it, but we kept in-
formed of the actions of the sentry and
moved only when he was engaged else-
where. In this way we arrived at our ob-
jective. We were laying out our material
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when some one burst into the room and
told us that the key would not fit.
Willis had done fine work with a piece of
lead fashioned into a key, but there was
one little dog in the lock that it was impos-
sible to find. Consequently the lock would
not turn. There was nothing to do but
leave the slats in the room, hide them as
best we could behind the locker, and leave.
We hoped to fathom the mystery of the
lock in a day or two, anyway, and did not
expect the delay to be dangerous.
Not one half-hour later, a Russian offi-
cer broke through that same gate in some
manner, carried a ladder to the outside
fence, and climbed over. He was shot at,
but escaped. The battalion of three hun-
dred men with several hounds were put on
his trail, but he was not recaptured until
several days later.
In the meantime the guard inside the
yard was doubled and remained so there-
after. One sentry was placed near that gate
and never ventured away from it. All the
weaker electric lamps on the circuit out-
side the camp were replaced by one hun-
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dred and two hundred watt lamps, and this
made the vicinity of the fences as light as
day. As if this were not enough, a few days
later a search of all the Americans and
their quarters was ordered by the com-
mandant. Just before it happened we
heard rumors about it, so I hid my tools,
which by this time made a very respecta-
ble chest, the wire chains, the cross-pieces
for the ladders, and the screws wherever I
could find a good hiding-place.
The tools went into the ashes of our lit-
tle cook-stove; the wire chains into the
chimney; the cross-pieces into the wood-
pile; and the screws we scattered in the
yard in various places where they could be
found again. In a day or two they were
rusty and looked just like the gravel in
which they lay.
The search came without further warn-
ing. A soldier blowing a fog-horn aroused
us from our barracks, and we were then
herded together in the center of the yard.
Certain ones, mostly aviators, were then
picked out and sent to the assembly hall
where they were searched. On one man
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was found a map sewed in the double seat
of his trousers. He was given six days' soli-
tary confinement in a cell for this. Two
others had contraband on their persons,
one a compass and a can of pepper, the
other a heavy knife. The one with the
knife leisurely drew it from his pocket and
laid it on the window-sill. It was not no-
ticed. The other, while waiting his turn to
be searched, sauntered over to the wall
where a broken guitar was hanging, and
taking it down began to thrum the strings;
and, although the guards were watching
him closely, he managed to drop both com-
pass and can into the hole of the sounding-
box.
The real hard luck came in one of the
barracks. Here they found several com-
passes and maps, and finally noticed that
the bed slats on some of the beds were
missing. Then began a general search of
the whole camp which culminated in their
finding our precious ladder material in the
Russian officer's room. He affected sur-
prise and indignation when it was found,
so they could not fasten the blame. It was
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a severe blow to me, however, and for the
first time I was discouraged.
We lived a lifetime of hope and fear in
the making of each of those plans and to
see them fail one by one was truly disheart-
ening. It was at this time my fortunes
reached their lowest ebb, but they were
destined soon to brighten with the never-
dying hope of success.
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CHAPTER XVII
THE ENLISTED MEN
By the first of October the enemy had cap-
tured about two thousand of our soldiers.
They were scattered throughout Germany
in hospitals, prison camps, and farms.
Over one thousand were in the concentra-
tion camp at Rastatt a few miles south
of Karlsruhe; and just before I made my
last and successful attempt to escape, six
young soldiers who were convalescing
from wounds, were sent from there to Vil-
lingen to act as orderlies for the American
officers. From them we learned of the con-
ditions at Rastatt.
It seems they were treated fairly well by
the Germans once they had arrived at the
camp. The Red Cross had sent large quan-
tities of food to Rastatt in anticipation of
their arrival and also a good stock of cloth-
ing. The men were expected to work and
many were sent to the fields near by while
others did duty around the camp. Every so
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often a party would be sent to another
part of Germany where they would be put
"in commando"; that is, loaned to farm-
ers to work in their fields, reporting fre-
quently to the district authorities. In this
case they were not guarded closely and
were able to get better food than if they
remained at a camp. Their treatment was
at time 3 rather harsh, as I learned from
one little private who escaped from the
farm where he was working. It depended
naturally on the character of the men for
whom they worked.
Those working on the big farms of the
landed class, or nobles, were usually
guarded in military fashion, for there were
so many of them. A few old "Landsturm-
ers" armed with rifles would stand guard
over a group of laborers; but often the
guards would lay down their guns, pick up
a farm implement, and help in the harvest.
These peaceful-looking old men could be
turned into demons in the twinkling of an
eye, however, by the mere suspicion that
some one was planning to escape. The fear
of the punishment to be meted out to
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The Enlisted Men
them, if their prisoners escaped, would ren-
der them insane; and then their inherent
brutality would assert itself and their sub-
sequent actions would be those of madmen.
I had a sample of this when I jumped from
the train. Another American officer also
jumped from a moving train in daylight
and was recaptured before he had gone a
hundred yards from the train. The guards
beat him with their guns, in driving him
back to the coach, all the while the Ger-
man officer in charge of the transport
smilingly looking on. Thereafter, when
Americans were being transported from one
camp to another their shoes were taken
from them.
Another instance of brutality that I ob-
served was at Villingen. One morning a
Russian orderly declared himself too sick
to work. The next thing I saw was a guard
beating him on the head and body with a
gun. When he lay on the ground, more
dead than alive, they dragged him by the
collar of his clothes to the guard-house fifty
yards away. The Russian officer who in-
quired into his case found that the punish-
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ment awarded to the poor fellow was forty
days' solitary confinement with food every
fourth day. I had no way of knowing if the
sentence was ever executed.
A sergeant was the senior non-commis-
sioned officer among the American soldiers
at Rastatt. When the Germans compelled
one of our soldiers to distribute their prop-
aganda newspapers, "America in Europe"
and "The Continental Times," both the
soldier and the sergeant went to the com-
mandant and not only protested against
it, but told him they refused even to
touch those papers again. The soldiers
with whom I talked could not say if any
corporal punishment was administered to
our two heroes — all they knew was that
both of them disappeared from camp about
four o'clock the following morning.
It was at the front and coming back
through the German lines that the treat-
ment of both officers and men was most
terrible. Rings, watches, helmets, boots,
and even trousers and coats were torn
from their bodies. And not only privates
were responsible for this, but even German
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The Enlisted Men
officers also. Our men were marched back
from town to town, sometimes sleeping in
barbed-wire enclosures with no protection
from the driving rain, and with no food of
any kind for days. Sometimes they would
pass a barrel of soup and the guards would
allow them to fall out, find a tin can, and
help themselves to a drink. The cans were
usually dirty and rusty and full of holes,
but by pressing their fingers over the leaks
they made fair cups.
That was when, as both officers and en-
listed men told me, they regretted their
waste of the rations at the front. Their
thoughts went back to the trenches and
dugouts paved with canned beef which
they had left a few days before — they
spurned such common food, but it made
good paving-blocks. Less than a week later
they would have sold their very souls for
one can of that "bully beef."
Often immediately after capture they
would be under the fire of our own batter-
ies, and the Germans would then compel
them to walk in the roads or woods which
were being shelled. The cold, rainy weather
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Prisoner of the U-90
added further to their misery — . there is a
great difference between a full and an
empty stomach when undergoing hard-
ships.
The food given the enlisted men at the
prison camps was practically the same as
that given the officers. Fortunately they,
like us, did not have to depend on the Ger-
man ration; for the Red Cross food finally
arrived in sufficiently large quantities.
The Russians tell the story of a fine tur-
key dinner they almost had at one of the
large camps in the North of Germany.
Two hundred turkeys were sent to the
camp, but when the prisoners sat down to
dinner they found the flesh so decomposed
that it could not be eaten. The turkeys
were marked for the German Army, but
apparently, when it was found that they
were spoiled, the authorities decided to send
them to a prison camp. I suppose a copy of
that day's menu was sent to all the embas-
sies in Berlin.
One day, while I was serving my two
weeks' sentence in the cell at Villingen, a
guard brought me a dish of excellent-
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The Enlisted Men
looking fish. I was hungry and literally
pounced on it. I had already cut off a large
piece, when in looking more closely I saw
several long white worms crawling through
the food. That ended my banquet.
From what I saw of the treatment of
prisoners of the different nationalities I
should say that the Americans were not
treated quite as harshly as the British
"Tommies," who were hated intensely by
the Germans, nor so leniently as the
French. No matter with whom I spoke in
Germany I always drew the same conclu-
sions; in their opinion the German prison-
ers in England and America were treated
very well, but those in France were treated
abominably.- "Yes," they would say, "our
poor people in France are treated terribly,
terribly." But it was a fact that the
French prisoners in Germany received the
best treatment awarded to any prisoners.
We used to account for this by the fact
that "might" meant "right" according to
their psychology, and that the only vir-
tue they recognized was force. Therefore,
they had a most wholesome respect for the
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Prisoner of the U-90
" force " displayed by the French. The lat-
ter had a wonderful system of espionage
at work in Germany, and whenever any
prisoner was mistreated they knew of it
and retaliated immediately.
The few times the British adopted this
policy it brought satisfactory results. For
instance, when Germany threatened to
shoot the aviator who dropped Allied prop-
aganda in Germany, England answered
with "two of yours for every one of ours,"
or words to that effect. Our stand in the
"shot-gun" episode also produced the de-
sired result.
In October and November there was an
investigation by Parliament into the treat-
ment of British captives in Germany. It
was disclosed that those who had escaped
and also those who had been repatriated
had been forbidden, upon their arrival in
England, to tell of 'their inhuman and ut-
terly shameful treatment in Germany.
I have since read in the London news-
papers that England will demand the pun-
ishment of all those Germans who mis-
handled prisoners. "All we want," said a
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The Enlisted Men
Cabinet member, "is the names of the cul-
prits" — as if I or any one experiencing
similar treatment could give the names of
our guards! We know of a few cases of
cruelty reaching from a single blow to mur-
der. Think of the cases we do not know
about; those that have not come through
and never will. And what a multitude of
sins is covered by that one word "miss-
ing"!
Digitized by GoOgle
CHAPTER XVIII
THE ESCAPE
Conditions at Villingen were much worse
after the search. We were watched very
closely and it looked as if any plan we
might make would be discovered before it
could be put into effect. I was completely
discouraged, but continued my exercise to
keep in good physical condition.
About this time I received my first mail
from home. I had been a prisoner four
months and I knew that letters had been
written me from the first. Although they
arrived, late they were very welcome and
put new hope in me. In every letter I
found the same words: "I am praying that
you will be home by Christmas." With
that incentive I determined that I would
be home by Christmas.
Some aviators had just come in from the
castle prison at Landshut. They told of
several attempts to escape from the castle
and also from the train on the way down.
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The Escape
The German commandant at Landshut
had their shoes taken from them every
night; and when an attempt to escape
proved unsuccessful he would punish them
with two or three weeks of solitary con-
finement in a cell until whatever sentence
was awarded by the Bavarian Government
should arrive. This was usually eight days'
solitary confinement; and although they
would already have served double their
sentence he would keep them in the cell
eight days more.
On one occasion he placed two aviators
in solitary confinement on the mere sus-
picion that they were going to try to es-
cape. Such procedure was unheard of. The
two Americans threatened dire things and
finally wrote the Danish, the Dutch, and
the Spanish Embassies demanding that
steps be taken to procure their release.
When the commandant saw these letters
he was thoroughly "bluffed," and released
them immediately after a stay of nine
days in the cell.
But the more attempts were made,
though unsuccessful, the more we learned
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Prisoner of the U-90
what not to do; and by the time the last
attempt was made we were all experienced
veterans in the escape game.
On October 5th we heard that two days
later all the Russians at Villingen were to
be shifted to other camps in the North of
Germany. With the Russians out of the
way, a perfect watch could be kept on us
at all times; and our hiding-places for con-
traband would be reduced to the few nooks
in our barracks and to holes in the ground.
Besides, the day after their departure, we
should have a search so thorough as to
make it practically impossible to save any
of our escape material. As it was the dark
of the moon, conditions seemed to favor
our making one last effort to get away be-
fore the Russians left.
The night of October 5th one of the avi-
ators and I, having collected and sharpened
most of the pocket-knives in the camp,
made our way to a shed behind the mess
hall and attempted to cut through it. Be-
fore we had proceeded far, however, we
realized that it could not be done in one
night; and the cutting would surely be
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The Escape
noticed the following day, even though we
were so fortunate as not to be seen, while
working, by the inside guards. So, aban-
doning that plan, we crawled unobserved to
the tennis court; and then, picking up the
long markers, we straightened up and
walked boldly to my barrack as if it were
the most natural thing in the world. We
were not noticed. Once inside, the markers
were laid on the floor lengthwise under sev-
eral of the beds; and as it was then nearly
eleven o'clock and "Taps," we waited un-
til the morrow to complete our plans.
Sunday, October 6th, the day before
the Russians were to leave, I called a meet-
ing in my barrack of all those Americans
whom I knew to be interested in a plan of
escape. After stating my reasons for doing
so, I insisted that we go that night. Every
one agreed, and we debated on the best
plans to adopt.
By this time we had several pairs of
wire-cutters and other tools, so we decided
to get out of our barracks or through the
inside fence at different parts of the camp,
and then cut through or go over the outer
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Prisoner of the U-90
fence. This would confuse the sentries, and
the first ones out would draw their fire and
thus give the others a better chance to cut
through. The lights were to be short-cir-
cuited and a diversion was to be created in
a different part of the yard by a few Rus-
sian officers whom we could trust.
I chose to build a bridge with the tennis-
court markers, cut the grating in my win-
dow, and when the lights went out, launch
the bridge through the window to the outer
fence and crawl over. Two of the aviators,
Lieutenant Battle and Lieutenant Tucker,
cast in their lot with me. The second team,
consisting of three infantrymen and one
aviator, proposed to cut the grating in a
window of the next barrack, climb over the
ditch with its little fence, and then cut
through the outer wire by using the wire-
cutters. A third team, consisting of two
aviators, decided to adopt the same plan
as the second team; except that instead
of cutting through the outer fence they
were to build a ladder of bed-slats, carry
it out through the window, and then by
means of it climb over the high wire. Willis
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The Escape
and three other aviators planned to dis-
guise themselves as German soldiers, cut
through a plain wire fence that surrounded
the guard-house, and then, when the guard
off duty should rush out the main gate in
answer to the firing at us, to mingle with
them and go out at the same time.
All afternoon my two comrades and I
cut, filed, and bent the iron grating in the
lower half of my window while the guards
were at the far end of their beats. By dark
we had every wire parted except one half-
inch iron rod which ran from top to bottom
in the center of the window. This was too
thick to file in that short space of time, so,
as it was embedded in wood at the bottom,
we decided to leave it until the lights went
out; and then one of us, by putting all his
strength against it, could wrench it out
and bend it up out of the way. Although
the wires were parted, we left the ends as
near together as possible, in order not to
make the cutting visible to the guards on
the outside.
Roll-call was at 7 p.m. and by that time
it was completely dark. Immediately after-
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Prisoner of the U-90
wards we commenced work on the bridge.
Watchers were posted at the windows and
door of the barrack while we worked be-
hind a row of lockers. The battens were
turned on their sides. Tops of Red Cross
food boxes, taken from their hiding-place
in the woodpile, were screwed to the bat-
tens with the screws collected some time
before. We worked quietly and rapidly
and although our hands were badly blis-
tered by the screw-drivers, we had the
bridge completed by ten o'clock. It was
about fifteen inches wide and looked fairly
solid. It should have been, for the screws
were from two to four inches long, and we
had to screw them all the way in, or other-
wise our clothes might catch on them as
we crawled over. I had laid in a stock of
shoe-blacking, and with this and my tooth-
brush we blackened the bridge so that it
would not appear light in the darkness.
Two stools were placed under the ends of
the bridge and we then tested it. It sagged
badly in the middle and would hardly hold
my weight — and one of the aviators was
heavier than I. But the distance from the
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The Escape
window-ledge to the outer fence was only
fifteen feet and the bridge was eighteen
feet long, so that would leave three feet in-
side when it was in place. By putting suffi-
cient weight on the inside end, our weight
in the center of the bridge, as we crawled
over, would be balanced at least in part.
We then drew lots to see the order in which
we were to go over, and Tucker, the small-
est of the three, drew first place; I came
next; and Battle, the heaviest man, came
last. This was very fortunate, for if the
bridge broke under my weight or with the
heaviest man, one at least would get out.
When all was in readiness we stripped
off our clothing, greased our bodies with
lard saved for several weeks, and then put
on whatever clothes we had that looked at
all like civilian dress. In one pocket of my
coat I put my maps; in another, my com-
pass and pepper; and in the other two, a
few French biscuits, some sausage, and
some sweet chocolate. Unfortunately I
lost most of the food out of my pocket
while running a few minutes later.
The other teams were busy making their
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preparations, but by half-past ten all were
ready. We brought out the wire chains and
gave them to four of the officers who were
to throw them over the lighting wires in
different parts of the yard. They took up
their position casually and waited for the
signal. This was to be given by another
officer, who, standing under a large electric
light in the center of the camp, would bend
his body three times as soon after ten-
thirty as the position of the inside sentries
warranted. It was hoped that all of those
who aided us would be able to get back
to their barracks unobserved after die
"show" was over.
At ten-thirty the lights inside the bar-
racks were turned out as usual. Our bridge
was then brought near the window and two
officers who were to aid us took their sta-
tions at either side of it preparatory to
•launching it through the window. The
bridge weighed only about fifty pounds,
but was so long as to be unwieldy, so we
greased the under-side of the battens in or-
der to have it slide out over the window-
ledge with a minimum of friction and noise.
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T^ie Escape
At ten-forty-five the camp was sud-
denly plunged in darkness to the accom-
paniment of rattling chains. I jumped to
the window, grasped the iron rod, and tore
it from its wooden socket. It came with a
crash carrying with it the severed grating.
It took but a second to bend it up out of
the way, but as I did so the lights came on
again. Our helpers had the bridge almost
to the ledge, but I pushed it down in time
to avoid its being seen by the sentries,
who, astonished by the strange happen-
ings, were standing in their tracks open-
mouthed with wonder. They had heard
noises* but had seen nothing except the
sudden darkness.
The lights had no sooner come on than
out they went again, and this continued
for perhaps ten seconds that seemed in-
stead like hours. I understood at once what
had happened. One of the circuits had the
positive and negative wires directly over
each other; and the chain, after being
thrown over the top wire, swung back and
forth, only occasionally touching the lower
wire. I knew it would take only a few sec-
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Prisoner of the U-90
onds to heat up the fuse before it would
"blow," but this delay almost upset our
plans. The sentries were too stupid, how-
ever, to guess what was taking place.
As we crouched there, waiting, I could
hear a perfect din in the far corner of the
yard: it was the demonstration being made
by our Russian friends. It undoubtedly
drew many sentries, but those outside our
window seemed too stupefied to move.
Finally the lights went off and stayed
off; and then we worked swiftly. The
bridge was shot through the window and
landed in perfect position on the outer
fence, making a resounding twang as it
struck. Tucker crawled on the bridge and
made his way carefully across, while the
guards, who by this time had begun to
realize what was happening, called out,
"Halt! Halt!" several times in rapid suc-
cession. I followed him, as the two help-
ers put their weight on the inside end, and
thus raised up the center of the span. I
must have flown across, for when I ar-
rived at the end over the fence Tucker was
just dropping down. I dropped down be-
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The Escape
side him as the guards shouted "Halt!"
for the last time and prepared to fire.
When we dropped to the ground we
whirled and ran away from the camp and
past the guards who had approached to
within a few feet on either side of the end
of the bridge. As we did so, both guards
fired; and the one on my right had the end
of his rifle so close to my head that the
flash seemed to singe my hair. But neither
of us was hit; so, running bent double and
zigzagging, we continued away from the
camp. Then I heard Battle jump from the
bridge to the ground; and calling out,
"Follow me," I headed for the top of the
slope three hundred yards away.
The first shots were the signal for a vol-
ley from the guards all along that side of
the fence; and during the next few minutes
there was a regular hail of bullets sprin-
kling the side of the hill. But as we were
mere shadows only a little blacker than
the darkness and moving swiftly, we soon
were completely blended with the sur-
rounding obscurity.
Digitized by CjOOQ IC — -
CHAPTER XIX
ON TOE WAY
About two miles south of the camp was
a landmark called the "Hun's Grave."
Tradition says that when Attila and his
Huns overran Europe one of the barbari-
ans' leaders died on this spot and was im-
mediately interred. They dug down per-
haps fifty feet, lowered the body in its
rough casket, and filled up the hole again
in such a way as to deceive any one look-
ing for the grave. Centuries later, how-
ever, excavations were made and the casket
found. It was shipped to Karlsruhe, the
capital of Baden, where it is now on exhi-
bition in the Museum. The dirt, left as
excavated, formed a huge mound with a
hollow center, much like the crater of a
volcano; and, being on the top of a hill, it
could be seen for miles. Even at night the
mound, silhouetted against the sky, was
visible for over a mile.
It was this landmark that Willis and I
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On the Way
chose for a rendezvous, and toward it I ran
until too tired to do more than walk. But
a few minutes after leaving the camp I
reached the grave, and then sat down in a
clump of bushes and waited, calling out
guardedly my own name at frequent in-
tervals — for this was the signal agreed
upon.
Tucker and Battle had passed me in the
darkness keeping on toward a rendezvous
of their own, and I had no way of knowing
if Willis had escaped. I did hear a few scat-
tered shots, however, when I was about a
mile from camp; but that meant nothing
to me, for I was very much accustomed to
that sound just then. Apparently none of
the other teams had broken through — at
least I saw no sign of them and all the fir-
ing seemed to be directed at our team.
I must have waited fully five minutes at
the rendezvous and still no sign of Willis.
So, calling my name two or three times and
receiving no answer, I decided to press on
in the direction in which we had planned. I
could wait no longer, for even now the bat-
talion, three hundred strong, might be on
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my trail and their hounds would lead them
unerringly. I had crossed a field and was
skirting a woods when I heard a slight
sound behind me. I stopped to listen, but
heard nothing more. It was probably the
patter of raindrops on the fallen leaves, for
it had just begun to mist. No time could be
lost, so I continued on. I had not gone far
when again that rustling sound was heard.
This time I waited several seconds; and
sure enough, some one was following me,
for there was the unmistakable sound of
swishing clothes. I stepped noiselessly into
the brush and waited for my pursuer to
pass. Soon he came along, and I could see
his dark form only a few feet from me. He
was wearing a raincoat, and that is what
caused the noise I heard. The thought at
once came to me that a guard on my trail
would hardly be wearing a raincoat; so I
called out my name in a very low tone of
voice. The figure stopped and quickly side-
stepped into the bushes a few yards ahead
of me; but no answer came. After waiting
some moments I again called out, this
time distinctly. " Willis !" came back a
[162]
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On the Way
shout of joy. I was never before so elated
over meeting a fellow human being.
Together we continued the march. Over
hills, through rivers, and into swamps,
heading a little west of south, with one eye
on the compass, the other on the ground,
we tramped until daylight. At times we
were in water up to our shoulders; and
even when on dry ground the going was
difficult, for our shoes were filled with wa-
ter and our clothes so wet they restricted
the movement of our legs. Occasionally in
the darkness we would step into holes or
suddenly feel the ground drop from under
us as a bank or low precipice came in our
path. We had many bad falls, but had to
keep going, as distance that first night was
vital. When it looked feasible we would
stop, cover our trail with pepper, then dou-
ble back, and jump as far as possible off to
one side to throw the dogs off the scent.
They will not take the trail after once
sniffing pepper, and it is then necessary to
put another dog on the trail Where the
first one left it. This delays the pursuers
considerably, and accounts for the fact
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Prisoner of the U-90
that pepper was considered contraband by
the Germans and denied to all prisoners.
They always removed the pepper from our
Red Cross boxes, but we were able to steal:
some in spite of all their precautions.
In crossing rivers we would walk a con-
siderable distance up the bed of the stream
and try to step on rocks when coming out
of the water on the opposite side, A hard
surface like stone or iron will not retain a
scent for any great length of time; whereas
it will hang around damp grass Indefi-
nitely.
Often we were startled by sentinel-like
trees standing alone in the fields: in the
gloom they so closely resembled the
guards, who we knew were by this time
searching for us. We never walked in the
roads, but always in the forest or through
the fields; never crossed bridges, but al-
ways swam or forded the rivers; and never
made the slightest noise it was possible to
avoid. When we spoke, which was seldom,
it was always in whispers; and we never
coughed from the moment we left the
camp until we were safely in Switzerland.
I 164]
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On the Way
We had planned to cross from the head-
waters of the Danube, through the moun-
tains and the heart of the Black Forest, or
Schwarzwald, in a southwesterly direction
to the Rhine, which in that part of the
country forms the boundary between Ger-
many and Switzerland. Villingen was situ-
ated on the Brigach River, which, a few
miles to the south, unites with the. Brege
to form the Danube. We expected to swim
the Rhine at a point forty miles in a
straight line from Villingen and knew that
meant a march of about one hundred and
twenty miles. We proposed to do it in six
days. Had we wished, we could have
marched straight to the south and met the
Swiss border at the Schaffhausen salient,
only eighteen miles from Villingen; or we
could have continued southward to the
east of Waldshut, where the Rhine is a
much smaller stream, and where we
should have had easy going all the way.
But by adopting either of those two plans
we should have been following the beaten
trail — the way that most prisoners had
gone and where most had been recaptured.
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Prisoner of the U-90
For the Schaffhausen salient is north of
the Rhine and the frontier there has no
natural barrier; so the Germans had sta-
tioned three lines of sentries on their side
of the border, spaced so closely as to make
it almost impossible to break through. Be-
sides, all the country to the south of Vil-
lingen and to the east of Waldshut was pa-
trolled by sentries — especially the roads
leading south and the bridges over the riv-
ers. To the west of Waldshut the Rhine
doubles in size, owing to the addition of
the Aare River which drains the northern
half of Switzerland and which flows into
the Rhine near that town. Also, the coun-
try to the west is very rough; and few pris-
oners attempt those mountains. For these
reasons we chose the hard but sure way.
About 6 a.m., the morning after we es-
caped, we climbed down a rocky cliff,
skirted the village of Unterbrand, and
there in the edge of the forest found a
thicket and prepared to camp for the day.
W~, had walked about twenty-five miles
and had put twelve good miles between us
and the camp; so we rested secure in our
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On the Way
hiding-place.- We took turns at sleeping,
and each of us managed to get perhaps two
hours of sleep. The sun reached us for a
short time and partly dried our clothes; so
we were almost comfortable.
Suddenly about I p.m. we heard the dis-
tant baying of hounds, and for the next
hour we were in mortal dread of discovery.
The baying grew louder and louder; and
finally we could tell there were several
hounds that apparently had followed our
trail and were approaching the village we
had skirted early that morning. They kept
coming closer until it seemed only the vil-
lage separated us; but at last they must
have received a setback, for they came no
nearer and seemed to be running up and
down uttering baffled whines. We conjec-
tured that they had lost the trail where
we climbed down the cliff. The sounds of
the pursuit then became less audible end
soon were lost to us entirely. From tha*
time on we had no further experience with
hounds.
There were numerous children play-
ing in the forest, however, and on many
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Prisoner of the U-90
occasions they almost ran us down. The
Schwarzwald is rather thickly populated
when one considers the very small area of
soil that is tillable. Every few miles there
is a village consisting of twenty or thirty
houses; and small farms surround the
homes. These villages are mere clearings in
the pine forest; and as there are no lone
houses scattered throughout the country,
the " cover " is excellent, and it is easy to
avoid meeting people. Of course at times we
would run upon towns in the darkness and
would have some difficulty in getting out
unobserved. But we were very fortunate.
One night about eleven o'clock, while
walking along the edge of a road in a driv-
ing rain, we passed a man walking in the
opposite direction. He was just as anxious
to avoid us as we were him, so both parties
kept on going.
The food we had was so very little that
it was necessary to look for some in the
fields. We had no trouble in finding cab-
bage, potatoes, turnips, and other vegeta-
bles which, in the raw state, formed our
chief articles of diet during that week.
[168]
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On the Way
Early the fourth night we came to the
Alb River, a tributary of the Rhine, the
west bank of which we proposed to follow
down to where it flowed into the Rhine.
We were below St. Blasien, a famous sum-
mer resort, and tried to cross there, but
were on the heights probably two hundred
feet above the river and had no way of get-
ting down. We finally decided to pick our
way down the side of the cliff; and, al-
though it was slow work and somewhat
nerve-racking, we were successful. In look-
ing up from the bottom after it was all
over, it seemed impossible that we had
been able to cling to that vertical wall of
rock and to lower ourselves down.
We followed the stream after crossing it,
but soon came to logging camps, summer
hotels, electric power plants, and brew-
eries, all built between the west bank of
the river and the high cliffs. After walking
over front porches, under driveways, and
through barns, we decided that that was
too risky, so we scaled the cliffs; and then,
leaving the river behind, we made our way
through the mountains.
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Prisoner of the U-90
It was very difficult walking. We would
sometimes be lost for hours in a gorge and
could not find our way out. Instead of go-
ing south we would at times find ourselves
heading north, because the mountains
were passable only at certain places, and
we would walk in circles trying to find
the passes. Every few hundred yards was a
mountain torrent and every torrent meant
a difficult gorge or ravine. The cold was in-
tense, and especially was this true of the
daytime when we would lie in each other's
arms trying to keep warm. We would cut
down great quantities of spruce limbs and
make beds for ourselves, but the cold
would find its way in just the same.
Every morning we would be so ex-
hausted from the hard walking and the
lack of proper food, that as soon as we had
found a hiding-place, we would drop down
where we stood and immediately be in a
deep sleep. After an hour or two of this the
cold would awaken us, and we would then
get up, sit close together, and throw over
our heads the raincoat Willis had brought
along. Our warm breath would soon fill the
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On the Way
substitute tent and in this way we were
able to keep up circulation.
One morning, after an exceptionally
hard night, we had fallen where we stood
and were both in a heavy sleep. Suddenly
I was awakened by a voice. I sat up and
to my horror found that Willis was deliri-
ous. He was babbling incoherently and
seemed to have a high fever. I soothed him
as well as I could, and in a few hours he
was almost normal. In that week, however,
I watched his hair turn almost white. Had
we not been in excellent health, neither of
us would ever have survived that terrible
trip with its dramatic ending.
Digitized by GoOgle
CHAPTER XX
THE RHINE
Our maps showed us that the only railroad
we should meet after the second night was
a line that paralleled the Rhine and was
only a short distance from it. Few trains in
Germany were allowed to run (during the
war) between the hours of 1 1 p.m. and sun-
rise; so we feared we might come upon
the track in the darkness without having
heard any movement of trains. The rail-
road embankment seemed a likely place
for a line of sentries, so it was necessary
that we approach it with caution.
About daybreak the morning of the
sixth day, just as we were looking for a
place to hide, the whistle of a locomotive
was heard; so we decided to keep on until
we were in a position where we could ob-
serve the railroad track and the bank of
the river, and, if possible, the lines of sen-
tries patrolling both. In this way we hoped
to discover the number of the sentries,
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The Rhine
their positions and beats, and the hours
the watch was changed; for this informa-
tion would aid us in trying to elude them.
Accordingly, although it was daylight,
we kept on past some farms in which the
women were already working. We crawled
along, obtaining "cover" where possible,
but the forest had thinned considerably in
the last mile or two, and soon ceased alto-
gether. We took up our position in the
brush which extended farthest to the south
and therefore nearest to our objective, and
awaited developments.
It was about 8 a.m. and a thin veil of fog
hung over the country in front of us, but
by nine o'clock it had lifted and revealed
our position to us. We were on the edge of
a large clearing which apparently extended
to the Rhine about a mile away. We could <
not see the river, for the country was roll-
ing and sloped rather sharply to the south,
but occasionally we would hear a passing
train and see the 6moke rise from a hollow,
which we took to be the cut of the railway
line.
A little to the left of us, and occupying
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Prisoner of the U-90
most of the space between our hiding-
place and the river, lay the little town
of Hauenstein. All day long pedestrians
passed our clump of bushes within two feet
of us as we sat behind some " camouflaged "
brush and peered through trying to see the
sentries. We were unsuccessful, owing to
the nature of the terrain, but we laid our
plans for the evening from what little in-
formation we did obtain, and then pre-
pared for sleep.
Perhaps all week long we had slept a
total of not more than ten or twelve hours
and were badly in need of a little rest, be-
fore undertaking the hard work ahead of
us. Willis lay down first while I sat beside
him and watched. Only a few minutes later
one of the passers-by, instead of following
the path outside the brush, broke through
and walked past us at a distance of about
ten feet. He looked directly at me, but con-
tinued on into the woods. I noticed that
he had a sack in his hands and was prob-
ably picking beech nuts, for we had seen
several children doing the same thing the
past few days. I wondered why he did not
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The Rhine
immediately give the alarm, but happened
to think of the cap I was wearing and then
understood. I had the cap Willis had worn
the night of the escape; and as it looked
very much like a German soldier's cap, it
probably deceived the man who had just
seen it. Only the upper part of my body
was visible to him, and Willis was behind
me; so I was sure he was not suspicious.
We took no chances, however, but crawled
away into a denser part of the forest and
lay there until dark.
About seven o'clock that evening we re-
moved our clothing, greased our bodies
with lard, and then dressed for the last
stage of our journey. We donned short
tights and jerseys and securely fastened
them to our bodies. Then we pulled on
trousers and stockings which we rubbed in
mud to darken them, and over our shoul-
ders we loosely hung our khaki shirts.
Coats, hats, and shoes were discarded, our
hands and faces covered with black dirt,
and at eight o'clock we left our hiding-
place; crawling noiselessly on our hands
and knees we cautiously traversed the
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Prisoner of the U-90
fields between us and the Rhine. The vil-
lage of Hauenstein was passed on our left;
and great care was taken in crossing the
roads leading into the town. When we
reached the railroad we listened for the
tramp of sentries, but finding everything
quiet, crossed the tracks with little noise
and continued on.
About fifty yards from the railway we
came to the edge of a cliff and lay there
listening. From below came the sound of
lapping water and the steady, measured
tread of a sentry walking his beat. But we
could find no way of getting down. We
crept slowly along the edge of the cliff,
stopping every few feet to listen, and try-
ing to find a place where it was passable.
Willis would lower me down the side as
far as his arms would reach, and I would
try to dig my toes into a crevice or any
place they could penetrate.
After traversing nearly two miles, and
passing twice through the edge of the vil-
lage, we were no nearer the river than
when we first reached the cliff. We found
several places where paths or trails and
[ 176 ]
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The Rhine
even roads led down to the Rhine, but these
places were so closely guarded by sentries
that it would have been folly to attempt to
get past. A heavy fog was depositing its
moisture on us and on the grass through
which we crawled, and we were wet to the
skin, but the impenetrable gloom prevented
our being seen, so was a decided advantage.
After three hours of vain attempts to
negotiate the cliff, we decided to make a
detour and try to intercept a mountain
stream we had seen that morning, and fol-
low it down to its mouth. All the mountain
torrents — and there are many in this vi-
cinity — flow into the Rhine with a tre-
mendous force and the noise of rushing wa-
ter. We felt that we could do better in the
bed of the stream where any sound we
might make would hardly be heard above
the roar of the falls; so when we came to
the creek we bent to our knees and made
our way down its center. In places the wa-
ter was up to our waists; at others only a
few inches covered the rock-strewn bed.
On our hands and knees, trying to keep
only our heads above water, we slowly
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Prisoner of the U-90
made our way along, carefully testing each
stone before we ventured to put our weight
on it.
Midnight had struck — all the village
church-bells in Germany strike the hours
— and there were no lights anywhere. We
had only a half-mile to go, but it took
nearly two hours to accomplish it. Our
hands and knees and the soles of our feet
were cut by the sharp rocks; and the water
felt like ice to our badly nourished bodies.
Besides the physical torture, the mental
strain we were under was terrible. Every
instant we were in the gravest danger of
discovery; we knew that sentries were but
a few yards away and a single misstep
would mean capture.
Once, when passing under a viaduct pa-
trolled by sentries, one of us must have
made a noise sufficiently loud to be heard
above. Instantly a searchlight was thrown
on the creek and a minute inspection took
place. We stood still with only our heads
above water. These covered with mud
were of the same color as the surrounding
rocks, and the guards were tpo far away to
[178]
Digitized byLjOOQlC
The Rhine
tell the difference. At intervals the search-
light was again flashed, but between the
flashes we were able to pass through the
danger zone unseen.
Finally" we came to the mouth of the
torrent, where, with a splashing and roar-
ing, the waters of the creek threw them-
selves into the Rhine. My watch showed a
few minutes before two. A cold wind had*
sprung up and was driving the fog before it
down the river. This was an advantage;
for, with complete darkness, there was
some danger of being turned around and
swimming back to the German shore.With
the fog lifted we could at least see the di-
rection in which we wished to go.
We did not know how wide the Rhine
was at this point, but thought perhaps one
hundred yards. As we learned later from
the Swiss guards it measures seven hun-
dred feet across, has a current of seven
miles an hour, and is filled with whirlpools
caused by the numerous mountain streams
which hurl themselves into the river from
the hills and mountains on either side.
As we crouched in the water a few feet
[ 179 1
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Prisoner of the U-90
from the bank we debated in whispers how
we were to swim and when we should re-
move our clothes. I asked Willis a question
and he did not answer. When I turned to
look for him he was nowhere to be seen.
Without a word of warning he had disap-
peared from where he stood within a foot
of me as if the earth had opened up and
swallowed him. It was terrifying, but I bus-
ied myself in getting off my outer clothing.
I was just pulling off my trousers when I
must have stepped a few inches farther out
into the stream. With a powerful blow the
current struck me and I was swept away
toward the center of the river. I swam the
"breast" stroke, in order not to be heard
by the sentries along the shore, and headed
across. It was easy work and I made rapid
progress until the center of the. stream was
reached. Then the fight began.
I seemed to be borne along with ter-
rific speed, and although I used different
strokes, none seemed to gain me anything
over that powerful current. The water was
very cold and the exposure during the pre-
ceding six hours had sapped most of my
[ 180]
Digitized byLjOOQlC
The Rhine
strength. I kept fighting until I thought I
could go no farther. Down the river in the
distance I could see a high point of land
extending out into the stream. This made
it appear to me that the Rhine at that
point must bend toward the south; and if
that were true, I knew I had to reach the
shore before the point was reached and be-
fore the waters, sliding off the Swiss bank
at a tangent, should carry me with them
back toward the center again.
Mustering all my strength I made a final
effort and succeeded in passing through
the worst part of the center. But the ex-
ertion took the last of my strength; and
although the shore loomed up less than
thirty yards away, I could go no farther.
So turning over on my back I commended
my soul to my God and closed my eyes.
Instantly my feet touched the rocks.
For a few minutes I lay there gasping
for breath and trying to find words for a
proper thanksgiving; then, after making
four or five unsuccessful attempts to rise,
I dragged myself up the sloping shore to
a railroad embankment a few feet above.
[ 181 ]
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Prisoner of the U-90
There, standing in my bare feet on the
sharp rocks of the railroad bed in a howl-
ing wind, I took off my tights and jersey,
wrung out the water, and replaced them.
It was 2.30 a.m. on Sunday, October 13,
191 8, the seventh day after my escape from
Villingen, and I was free at last; so what
mattered a few sharp rocks cutting into my
wounded feet?
Digitized by GoOgle
CONCLUSION
I knew that when once I placed foot on
Swiss soil my troubles were at an end and I
had nothing more to fear, A prisoner es-
caping to a neutral country has no military
or naval status, but is simply a citizen of
the country from which he originally
comes — his native land. So by giving
himself up to the police, he runs no risk of
internment, unless he cannot prove his right
to asylum or has no passport.
When I had regained sufficient strength
I walked up the railroad track to a road,
which I followed a short distance until I
came to a house. After knocking and as-
suring the occupants that I was only an
escaped American prisoner, I was taken
in and treated with the utmost kindness.
The owner of the house, a Swiss customs
guard, at my request went out to search for
Willis, and found him in a small tavern
about two miles down the river where he
[183]
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Prisoner of the U-90
had just applied for admittance. It seems
that the current had swept him off his feet
before he had removed all his clothes, and
of course he could not cry out to warn
me because of the nearness of the sentries.
He, too, had fought a terrible battle to get
across.
As neither Willis nor I had passports, we
were taken by Swiss gendarmes to Bern,
the capital, and turned over to the Ameri-
can Embassy, where we were provided
with the necessary papers. There we found
that only one other officer of the thirteen
who had been in the escape, had succeeded
in reaching safety: he was Lieutenant Pur-
year, of the third team. The others who had
managed to get outside the camp were
probably recaptured. One American sol-
dier also escaped to Switzerland about this
time, and we four were the first ones of the
American forces to escape from Germany
up to the 15th of October.
In possession of our passports we had no
trouble in leaving the country. At Paris I
left the others and proceeded alone to
London, where I reported to Vice-Admiral
[ 184]
Digitized byLjOOQlC
Conclusion
Sims, command-; of the American Naval
Forces in Europe.
The day after my report was submitted,
it was learned that the German submarines
were returning to their home ports under
the white flag. I was too late!
THE END
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